Swiss National Bank Cuts Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Swiss National Bank cut its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,602,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 16,300 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Aflac were worth $179,126,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AFL. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 18,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,600,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its position in shares of Aflac by 9.5% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 5,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $454,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 263.2% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 18,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after acquiring an additional 13,434 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 213.6% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 37,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,195,000 after acquiring an additional 25,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in Aflac by 637.7% during the 1st quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 29,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,492,000 after purchasing an additional 25,086 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Aflac Stock Performance

Aflac stock opened at $111.32 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $61.84 billion, a PE ratio of 16.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $75.07 and a 12 month high of $115.50. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $110.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $99.70. 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 (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.93.

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.