Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. Cuts Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Richard C. Young & CO. LTD. cut its stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 55.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 71,122 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 86,826 shares during the quarter. Richard C. Young & CO. LTD.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $7,357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Raelipskie Partnership acquired a new stake in Aflac in the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in Aflac by 41.8% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 363 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in Aflac in the third quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Aflac during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $51,000. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com cut Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays cut their target price on Aflac from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.21.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other Aflac news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total transaction of $2,558,529.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 222,618 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,018,701.20. This represents a 10.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $103.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The stock has a market cap of $57.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.99. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $77.01 and a 1-year high of $115.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $104.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.78.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.07). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. Sell-side analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.95 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.24%. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s payout ratio is presently 20.83%.

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.