Buffington Mohr McNeal Raises Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Buffington Mohr McNeal increased its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 21.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 560 shares during the period. Buffington Mohr McNeal’s holdings in Aflac were worth $327,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 75.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 776,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,533,000 after purchasing an additional 333,083 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 79.7% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after buying an additional 12,131 shares during the last quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Aflac during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $979,000. FMR LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 4.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,202,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $134,395,000 after acquiring an additional 45,745 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fulton Breakefield Broenniman LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac in the third quarter valued at approximately $250,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total transaction of $2,558,529.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 222,618 shares in the company, valued at $23,018,701.20. This trade represents a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AFL. Bank of America boosted their target price on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $107.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Aflac currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.67.

Aflac Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $108.14 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $105.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $106.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The stock has a market cap of $60.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.29, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.00. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $75.07 and a 52-week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.84 EPS. Aflac’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.15%. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.12%.

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.