Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Sells 1,301 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans decreased its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 27,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,301 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Aflac were worth $3,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 6.3% in 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 period. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its stake in Aflac by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $202,437,000 after purchasing an additional 31,752 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in Aflac by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,382,000 after purchasing an additional 83,289 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Aflac by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 26.6% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,338,000 after purchasing an additional 405,847 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AFL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price 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 boosted their price objective on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $113.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $75.07 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $110.80 and a 200-day moving average of $100.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s payout ratio is presently 30.12%.

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.