New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 18.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 447,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 104,571 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Aflac were worth $50,012,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Aflac by 6.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 285,576 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its position in shares of Aflac by 1.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 31,752 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,382,000 after purchasing an additional 83,289 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Aflac by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in Aflac by 26.6% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,338,000 after purchasing an additional 405,847 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AFL. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target on the stock. Finally, 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.87.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 18,158 shares in the company, valued at $1,796,552.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $104.71 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.64 billion, a PE ratio of 15.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $75.07 and a 12 month high of $115.50. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $110.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $97.80.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.51%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

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.