Norges Bank Purchases New Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 3,380,690 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $349,699,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AFL. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Aflac by 75.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 776,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,533,000 after acquiring an additional 333,083 shares during the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new position in Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at about $948,000. FMR LLC raised its position in Aflac by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,202,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $134,395,000 after purchasing an additional 45,745 shares during the period. Willis Investment Counsel lifted its stake in Aflac by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Willis Investment Counsel now owns 273,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,287,000 after purchasing an additional 3,357 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,014,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.63, for a total value of $107,630.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,733,048.59. The trade was a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 29,802 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.29, for a total value of $3,197,456.58. Following the sale, the director now owns 49,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,360,422.98. This represents a 37.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Aflac from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $103.36.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL stock opened at $109.71 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $106.49 and its 200 day moving average is $107.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market cap of $59.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.43, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.93. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $79.31 and a 52-week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.07). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Aflac

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.