Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.46 EPS

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.46, Briefing.com reports. Aflac had a net margin of 28.35% and a return on equity of 16.22%. The firm had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.84 EPS. Aflac’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Aflac Price Performance

Aflac stock traded down $4.45 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $105.64. The company had a trading volume of 1,983,464 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,221,361. Aflac has a fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $60.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $97.46.

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 given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 22.08%.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total transaction of $197,880.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,158 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,796,552.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $106.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Three 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.53.

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.