Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.58 Per Share

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of 0.58 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50.

Aflac has increased its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 43 consecutive years. Aflac has a dividend payout ratio of 27.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Aflac to earn $7.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.7%.

Aflac Trading Down 3.6 %

AFL traded down $4.03 on Tuesday, hitting $107.37. The company had a trading volume of 724,374 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,203,079. Aflac has a 12-month low of $75.07 and a 12-month 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $111.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.63. The company has a market cap of $59.65 billion, a PE ratio of 16.78, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.97.

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 return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.84 earnings per share. Aflac’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Aflac will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on AFL shares. Barclays started coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. TD Cowen started coverage on Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.93.

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.