Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Has $7.48 Million Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 83,748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,091 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $7,479,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 25,636 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,115,000 after acquiring an additional 932 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new stake in Aflac in the 4th quarter valued at $484,000. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its position in Aflac by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 34,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,835,000 after purchasing an additional 4,257 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter worth about $347,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Aflac by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 530,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,803,000 after buying an additional 39,846 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AFL shares. UBS Group lifted their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Aflac from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total value of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,796,552.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $107.89 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $102.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $91.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $74.89 and a 1-year high of $111.14.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.23. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.85%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 22.08%.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. The company operates through Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. segments. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care, work leave, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan.