Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Position Lessened by Nordea Investment Management AB

Nordea Investment Management AB reduced its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFLFree Report) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,711,852 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 31,662 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Aflac were worth $177,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in 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 worth $429,319,000 after buying an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Aflac by 6.4% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,694,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $524,846,000 after acquiring an additional 281,148 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in shares of 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 worth $202,437,000 after purchasing an additional 31,752 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Aflac to $107.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen began coverage on Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 31st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.87.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on AFL

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of AFL stock opened at $101.56 on Tuesday. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $75.07 and a 12 month high of $115.50. The company has a market capitalization of $56.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $107.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $104.57. 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:AFLGet Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid 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 yield of 2.28%. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s payout ratio is presently 34.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was 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 directly owns 222,618 shares in the company, valued at $23,018,701.20. This represents a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

Further Reading

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AFL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFLFree Report).

Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Aflac (NYSE:AFL)

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