apricus wealth LLC Sells 179 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

apricus wealth LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 6.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,538 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 179 shares during the quarter. apricus wealth LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $282,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Private Trust Co. NA increased its position in Aflac by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 7,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $791,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. TKG Advisors LLC increased its position in Aflac by 0.5% during the 4th 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 during the period. Family Legacy Inc. increased its position in Aflac by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Family Legacy Inc. now owns 2,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $270,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Aflac by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the period. Finally, Titleist Asset Management LLC increased its position in Aflac by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 3,324 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total transaction of $106,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,786,791.84. This trade represents a 3.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total value of $3,906,830.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 70,992 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,496,045.28. This represents a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 40,750 shares of company stock valued at $4,304,295. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on AFL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. UBS Group increased their price target on Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Three research 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. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $104.93.

Aflac Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE AFL opened at $101.25 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.55, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.75. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $86.46 and a 12 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.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.53 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 28.76% and a return on equity of 16.20%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 37.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were given a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 36.25%.

Aflac Company 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.