Hilltop Holdings Inc. Boosts Stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 27.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,647 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $846,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 79.7% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,058,000 after buying an additional 12,131 shares during the period. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Aflac by 6.4% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 98,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,800,000 after purchasing an additional 5,912 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the second quarter worth $2,535,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Aflac during the third quarter worth $979,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Aflac by 1,273.4% during the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 10,575 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $942,000 after purchasing an additional 9,805 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $106.99 on Thursday. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $75.07 and a one year high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08. The firm has a market cap of $59.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.11, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $111.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $101.97.

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 company had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.58 per share. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.17%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AFL. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group upped their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Bank of America upped their price target on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Three 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Aflac currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.73.

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.