Horan Capital Advisors LLC. Decreases Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Horan Capital Advisors LLC. reduced its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 378 shares during the quarter. Horan Capital Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $660,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AFL. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 3rd quarter worth $203,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in Aflac by 60.1% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 13,771 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,540,000 after buying an additional 5,170 shares during the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac in the third quarter valued at about $630,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 11.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 97,494 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,933,000 after purchasing an additional 9,667 shares during the period. Finally, Intact Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac during the third quarter worth about $74,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Aflac in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $111.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Aflac from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.36.

Aflac Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of AFL opened at $110.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $104.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $107.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.10. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $78.62 and a 52 week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.07). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total value of $2,558,529.60. Following 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 is accessible through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.