PDS Planning Inc Invests $217,000 in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

PDS Planning Inc bought a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,636 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,558,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 25.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,693,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $139,676,000 after acquiring an additional 348,400 shares in the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 353.3% during the fourth quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 14,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,217,000 after acquiring an additional 11,499 shares in the last quarter. G&S Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 65.1% during the fourth quarter. G&S Capital LLC now owns 31,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,626,000 after acquiring an additional 12,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 376,087 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,786,000 after acquiring an additional 26,338 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 86,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,879,451.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706 in the last three months. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AFL has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.15.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $83.75 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.68. The firm has a market cap of $48.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $64.10 and a fifty-two week high of $86.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a current ratio of 0.06.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $3.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.29 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current 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.