Trust Investment Advisors Trims Stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Trust Investment Advisors trimmed its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,554 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 241 shares during the quarter. Trust Investment Advisors’ holdings in Aflac were worth $211,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Xponance Inc. grew its holdings in Aflac by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 76,391 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,302,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in Aflac by 163.2% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 16,613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,371,000 after buying an additional 10,302 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in Aflac by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 2,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,000 after buying an additional 497 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Aflac by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 50,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,141,000 after buying an additional 2,992 shares during the period. Finally, Scissortail Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the 4th quarter worth $646,000. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,879,451.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $2,436,695.63. Following the sale, the director now owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at $6,879,451.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $445,850.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Trading Up 0.9 %

AFL stock traded up $0.72 during trading on Thursday, reaching $80.98. 2,129,906 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,238,323. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $64.10 and a 1 year high of $86.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $82.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 24.92%. The business had revenue of $3.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.44 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AFL. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group upped their price target on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Evercore ISI lowered Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.15.

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.