Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Shares Sold by Edgestream Partners L.P.

Edgestream Partners L.P. reduced its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.7% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,039 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 250 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $450,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AFL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Aflac by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $429,319,000 after buying an additional 285,576 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.7% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,806,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $155,140,000 after acquiring an additional 113,226 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Aflac by 27.6% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,243,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $111,029,000 after purchasing an additional 268,694 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in Aflac by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 980,236 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $84,163,000 after purchasing an additional 7,163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Aflac by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 902,461 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $80,599,000 after purchasing an additional 32,934 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AFL. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Aflac from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Barclays started coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.50.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total value of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,796,552.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $107.92 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.32 billion, a PE ratio of 11.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.95. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $74.89 and a 1-year high of $111.14. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $102.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $92.03.

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

Aflac Announces Dividend

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

Aflac Profile

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.