Insigneo Advisory Services LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Insigneo Advisory Services LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 43.2% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,134 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,142 shares during the quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $460,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Private Trust Co. NA raised its position in Aflac by 1.3% in 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 last quarter. Optas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.5% in the first quarter. Optas LLC now owns 2,949 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $328,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. TKG Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. TKG Advisors LLC now owns 21,255 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,230,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Family Legacy Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Family Legacy Inc. now owns 2,607 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 5,927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $613,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AFL. Wall Street Zen downgraded Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.93.

Aflac Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $102.56 on Thursday. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $88.00 and a 12-month high of $115.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $55.45 billion, a PE ratio of 16.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a 50-day moving average of $105.02 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.35.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a net margin of 21.27% and a return on equity of 15.55%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st were given a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total transaction of $3,906,830.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 70,992 shares in the company, valued at $7,496,045.28. The trade was a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total transaction of $106,790.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,786,791.84. This trade represents a 3.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 40,750 shares of company stock worth $4,304,295 over the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.