Investment Management Corp of Ontario Grows Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 47.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,961 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,800 shares during the quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,008,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $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 raised its stake in 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 valued at $524,846,000 after buying an additional 281,148 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its stake in 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 valued at $202,437,000 after buying an additional 31,752 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its stake in 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 valued at $254,382,000 after buying an additional 83,289 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in Aflac by 5.6% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $198,279,000 after buying an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL opened at $106.99 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $75.07 and a one year high of $115.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.11, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a fifty day moving average of $111.16 and a 200 day moving average of $101.97.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.84 earnings per share. Aflac’s revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.17%. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 34.94%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. 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. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.73.

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.