Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Receives $92.50 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $93.36.

AFL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target for the company. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total transaction of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,796,552.52. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Aflac

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ascent Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 0.6% in the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 17,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,539,000 after buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC increased its stake in Aflac by 0.5% during the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 21,775 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,945,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 1.3% during the second quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 8,337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $745,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 3.7% in the second quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 3,029 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 0.5% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 21,743 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE:AFL opened at $110.59 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10. Aflac has a 1-year low of $74.89 and a 1-year high of $111.14. The company has a 50-day moving average of $104.50 and a 200 day moving average of $92.98. The firm has a market cap of $62.84 billion, a PE ratio of 12.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.95.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 28.35% and a return on equity of 16.22%. The company’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Aflac will post 6.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.08%.

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.