Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Position Cut by Zions Bancorporation N.A.

Zions Bancorporation N.A. lowered its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 124 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $73,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 7,001.0% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 667,706 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $596,000 after purchasing an additional 658,303 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 10,878.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 559,903 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,597,000 after acquiring an additional 554,803 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 26.6% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after acquiring an additional 405,847 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,588,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings 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 worth $429,319,000 after purchasing an additional 285,576 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays initiated coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $111.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The firm 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. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $99.29. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $75.07 and a 52-week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 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 analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.84 EPS. Aflac’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio 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.