Peterson Financial Group Inc. Takes $52,000 Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 468 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $52,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AFL. Czech National Bank boosted its position in Aflac by 6.4% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 98,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,800,000 after acquiring an additional 5,912 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Aflac by 79.7% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 12,131 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in Aflac during the second quarter worth about $2,535,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in Aflac by 576.9% during the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 8,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $721,000 after acquiring an additional 6,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in Aflac by 161.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 311,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,723,000 after acquiring an additional 191,975 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AFL shares. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Barclays started coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.93.

Aflac Price Performance

Aflac stock opened at $111.32 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $99.59. The company has a market capitalization of $61.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $75.07 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

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.