Vinva Investment Management Ltd Invests $930,000 in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Vinva Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 8,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $930,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Aflac by 6.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 285,576 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.4% during 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 buying an additional 281,148 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.3% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $202,437,000 after buying an additional 31,752 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.8% during the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $254,382,000 after buying an additional 83,289 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 5.6% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after buying an additional 117,504 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AFL shares. UBS Group increased their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Aflac has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $114.02 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $63.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.17, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.43. 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 Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. The business 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.84 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

Aflac Company 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.