First Hawaiian Bank Lowers Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

First Hawaiian Bank trimmed its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,393 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 150 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Aflac were worth $248,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 10,878.5% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 559,903 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,597,000 after acquiring an additional 554,803 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 471.4% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 600,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $67,080,000 after purchasing an additional 495,000 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 26.6% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after purchasing an additional 405,847 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aflac in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $42,290,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 75.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 776,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,533,000 after buying an additional 333,083 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AFL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $107.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Aflac to $107.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 222,618 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,018,701.20. The trade was a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Aflac Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $101.01 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $106.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $104.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.21, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $75.07 and a 52-week high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.84 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.30%. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 34.94%.

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.