Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Shares Bought by City Holding Co.

City Holding Co. lifted its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,649 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,987 shares during the period. City Holding Co.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $5,886,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.3% during 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 period. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its stake in Aflac by 1.3% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,437,000 after purchasing an additional 31,752 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Aflac by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 26.6% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after buying an additional 405,847 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,806,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $155,140,000 after buying an additional 113,226 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $112.47 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $63.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $106.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $94.19. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,796,552.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.43.

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.