J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Purchases 378 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 2.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 15,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 378 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,420,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AFL. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at $197,820,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 113,226 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,577,319 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $130,129,000 after purchasing an additional 64,202 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Aflac by 27.6% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,243,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $111,029,000 after buying an additional 268,694 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 7,163 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Barclays started coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Aflac from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.50.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $108.59 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $60.81 billion, a PE ratio of 11.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.04. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $74.89 and a one year high of $111.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a current ratio of 0.10.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.58 EPS. Aflac’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.08%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares in the company, valued at $1,796,552.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Company 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.