11,639 Shares in Aflac Incorporated $AFL Acquired by Sawyer & Company Inc

Sawyer & Company Inc bought a new stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 11,639 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,301,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the 2nd quarter worth about $6,630,000. Atlas Wealth LLC bought a new position in Aflac during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,802,000. Callan Family Office LLC bought a new position in Aflac during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,546,000. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in Aflac by 137.4% during the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 40,904 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,796,000 after purchasing an additional 23,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in Aflac by 135.5% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 142,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,599,000 after purchasing an additional 81,803 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 113,611 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.53, for a total transaction of $13,466,311.83. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 50,134,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,942,422,016.37. The trade was a 0.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 713,662 shares of company stock worth $83,323,978 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Aflac from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore upped their target price on Aflac from $109.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Bank of America cut their target price on Aflac from $137.00 to $133.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $101.00 price target (up from $99.00) on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised their price target on Aflac from $119.00 to $123.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.20.

Aflac Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE AFL traded up $0.30 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $120.57. The company had a trading volume of 333,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,261,497. The stock has a market cap of $60.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.56. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $105.43 and a 52 week high of $130.22. The business’s 50-day moving average is $116.29 and its 200-day moving average is $117.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 0.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $4.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.11 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 26.91% and a return on equity of 13.27%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.78 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.15%.

Aflac Company Profile

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) is an insurance company specializing in supplemental health and life insurance. Through its policies, the company helps individuals and families manage expenses that may not be fully covered by major medical insurance, including deductibles, copayments and other out-of-pocket costs.

Aflac offers products such as accident, cancer, critical illness, hospital indemnity, dental and vision, disability, life and long-term care insurance. Many of its supplemental policies provide cash benefits directly to policyholders, who can generally use the funds according to their individual needs.