FourThought Financial Partners LLC Sells 637 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC lessened its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 9.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,376 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 637 shares during the period. FourThought Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $526,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aflac during the fourth quarter worth about $1,558,000. abrdn plc grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 51.2% in the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 298,226 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,604,000 after purchasing an additional 100,937 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. raised its position in Aflac by 353.3% during the 4th quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 14,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,217,000 after purchasing an additional 11,499 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Aflac by 25.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,693,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $139,676,000 after buying an additional 348,400 shares during the period. Finally, G&S Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 65.1% in the 4th quarter. G&S Capital LLC now owns 31,825 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,626,000 after buying an additional 12,551 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AFL shares. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Aflac from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.31.

Aflac Stock Down 1.0 %

AFL traded down $0.83 during trading on Friday, hitting $83.21. 2,938,536 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,533,085. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $64.10 and a fifty-two week high of $86.26. The stock has a market cap of $47.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.18, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s 50 day moving average is $83.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $81.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $5.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.09 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 27.67% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.55 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 22.08%.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 17,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,516,390.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Albert Riggieri sold 8,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total transaction of $666,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 32,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,735,635.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Aflac 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.