Board of the Pension Protection Fund Purchases Shares of 9,800 Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,014,000. Aflac comprises about 1.2% of Board of the Pension Protection Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Parallel Advisors LLC increased its position in Aflac by 6.8% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 8,092 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $723,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 27.6% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,243,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $111,029,000 after buying an additional 268,694 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its position in shares of Aflac by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 3,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $295,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its position in shares of Aflac by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 9,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $879,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,018,701.20. This trade represents a 10.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. 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 report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.07.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $103.52 on Wednesday. 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 fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $106.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.12. The firm has a market cap of $57.51 billion, a PE ratio of 15.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 34.94%.

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.