Mather Group LLC. Cuts Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Mather Group LLC. trimmed its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 14.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 149,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,759 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $16,762,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AFL. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 7,001.0% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 667,706 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 658,303 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in Aflac by 26.6% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,338,000 after buying an additional 405,847 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Aflac during the first quarter valued at $27,588,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 196.5% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 484,176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,945,000 after acquiring an additional 320,867 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group raised their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target on the stock. 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 stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.43.

Aflac Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $111.84 on Tuesday. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $75.07 and a 12-month high of $115.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $106.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.55 billion, a PE ratio of 12.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.95. 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 (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $5.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.10 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.58 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.08%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction 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. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.