Public Sector Pension Investment Board Purchases 300 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 87,995 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Aflac were worth $9,838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $429,319,000 after acquiring an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its position in Aflac by 1.3% during 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 last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its holdings in Aflac by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,382,000 after buying an additional 83,289 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after buying an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its position 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 worth $172,338,000 after buying an additional 405,847 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL opened at $114.10 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $63.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $111.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $101.23. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $75.07 and a 12 month high of $115.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.84 earnings per share. Aflac’s revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 30.12%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

Aflac 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.