Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases Shares of 67,790 Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 67,790 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,475,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 21,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,420,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 19,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 11,923 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,315,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 9,831 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Corp lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 2,939 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $324,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Aflac from $116.00 to $111.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Aflac from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Evercore raised shares of Aflac from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Aflac from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $111.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 166,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.38, for a total value of $18,655,080.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 51,723,100 shares in the company, valued at $5,812,641,978. This trade represents a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 814,028 shares of company stock worth $91,815,931 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $117.78 on Tuesday. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $96.95 and a 52 week high of $119.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11. The company has a market capitalization of $59.95 billion, a PE ratio of 13.37, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $112.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $111.74.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.80 by ($0.05). Aflac had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 25.60%.The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 27.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 20th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.70%.

Aflac Company Profile

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac’s product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.