Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Holdings Boosted by QV Investors Inc.

QV Investors Inc. grew its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. QV Investors Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $5,070,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AFL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $202,437,000 after purchasing an additional 31,752 shares during the period. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 3.8% in the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,382,000 after purchasing an additional 83,289 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 5.6% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its position 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 valued at $172,338,000 after purchasing an additional 405,847 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Down 0.1 %

AFL stock opened at $113.99 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a 50-day moving average of $108.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $95.36. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $75.07 and a 52-week high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.10 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.76 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.08%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on AFL. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America upped their target price on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Aflac from $90.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Aflac currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.53.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,796,552.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.