Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Increases Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 134.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,666 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,528 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Aflac were worth $220,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Aflac by 9.0% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $740,141,000 after purchasing an additional 794,784 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Aflac during the third quarter valued at about $47,492,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,160,465,000 after acquiring an additional 605,210 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 8,861.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 449,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,113,000 after acquiring an additional 444,829 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,295,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,953,000 after acquiring an additional 368,704 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

AFL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total transaction of $423,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of AFL stock traded up $0.38 on Wednesday, hitting $84.13. 528,356 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,259,154. The firm has a market cap of $48.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.81, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.68. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $64.10 and a 52 week high of $86.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.06 and a quick ratio of 0.06.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The company had revenue of $3.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.