J. W. Coons Advisors LLC Acquires 536 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

J. W. Coons Advisors LLC grew its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 536 shares during the period. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $742,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in shares of Aflac by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 18,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,600,000 after buying an additional 319 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 9.5% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 5,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $454,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 263.2% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 18,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 13,434 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 213.6% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 37,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,195,000 after buying an additional 25,349 shares during the period. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its position in Aflac by 637.7% in the 1st quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 29,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,492,000 after buying an additional 25,086 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AFL. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Aflac in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price objective for the company. Three 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $111.32 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $75.07 and a 52 week high of $115.50. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $110.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $99.70. The company has a market capitalization of $61.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.