Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC trimmed its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 3.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 283,691 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,174 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $31,717,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position 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 valued at $429,319,000 after acquiring an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. lifted its stake in Aflac by 1.3% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,437,000 after acquiring an additional 31,752 shares during the period. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its stake in Aflac by 3.8% in the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,382,000 after acquiring an additional 83,289 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Aflac by 5.6% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after acquiring an additional 117,504 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in Aflac by 26.6% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,338,000 after acquiring an additional 405,847 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total transaction of $197,880.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,796,552.52. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Trading Down 0.2 %

Aflac stock opened at $104.51 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $98.09. The company has a market cap of $58.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $75.07 and a 52-week high of $115.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.84 EPS. Analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.87 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.91%. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on AFL shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Aflac from $90.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. TD Cowen began coverage on Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.87.

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.