Bfsg LLC Purchases Shares of 2,520 Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Bfsg LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 2,520 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 9.0% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $740,141,000 after purchasing an additional 794,784 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Aflac in the third quarter valued at $47,492,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Aflac by 1.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,160,465,000 after acquiring an additional 605,210 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 8,861.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 449,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,113,000 after acquiring an additional 444,829 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Aflac by 5.3% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,295,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,953,000 after acquiring an additional 368,704 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $2,436,695.63. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,879,451.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at $6,879,451.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 17,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,516,390.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Evercore ISI downgraded Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $82.15.

Aflac Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE AFL traded down $0.88 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $83.40. The stock had a trading volume of 295,329 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,258,463. The company has a market capitalization of $47.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.88, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.91. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $64.10 and a 1-year high of $86.26. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $82.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The firm had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.29 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current year.

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.