Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 126,260 Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 126,260 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $13,060,000. Aflac accounts for about 6.3% of Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its holdings in Aflac by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 7,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $791,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC raised its position in shares of Aflac by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC now owns 6,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $662,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 23.2% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. TKG Advisors LLC boosted its position in Aflac by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. TKG Advisors LLC now owns 21,255 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,230,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Aflac by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Robertson Stephens Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $720,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Aflac from $122.00 to $118.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Aflac from $98.00 to $95.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Aflac from $107.00 to $104.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $103.36.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $23,018,701.20. The trade was a 10.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.63, for a total transaction of $107,630.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 25,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,733,048.59. This represents a 3.79 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,546 shares of company stock valued at $5,863,616 in the last quarter. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $108.10 on Friday. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $79.31 and a twelve month high of $115.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $59.08 billion, a PE ratio of 11.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50 day moving average is $105.95 and its 200 day moving average is $107.63.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.63 by ($0.07). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

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.