Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Short Interest Update

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,260,000 shares, a decline of 8.0% from the December 15th total of 7,890,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,000,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Currently, 1.5% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total value of $2,558,529.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,018,701.20. The trade was a 10.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aflac

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Spinnaker Trust lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 2.7% during the third quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 3,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $405,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 1.0% during the third quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 9,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,094,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Ascent Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 0.6% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 17,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,539,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 6,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $662,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Aflac from $108.00 to $107.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Aflac from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.07.

Aflac Stock Performance

Aflac stock traded up $0.50 during trading on Friday, hitting $106.43. The stock had a trading volume of 2,080,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,698,974. Aflac has a 1 year low of $75.07 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $106.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.13. The stock has a market cap of $59.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted 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 business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Aflac will post 7.26 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.18%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.12%.

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.