Legal & General Group Plc Has $413.40 Million Stock Holdings in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,748,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 177,811 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Aflac were worth $413,398,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Stephens Inc. AR raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 91 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Aflac by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 7,702 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $902,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sigma Planning Corp raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Aflac from $116.00 to $114.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Barclays set a $99.00 price objective on shares of Aflac and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Mizuho set a $104.00 target price on shares of Aflac in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $111.82.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $117.78 on Tuesday. Aflac Incorporated has a 1 year low of $96.95 and a 1 year high of $119.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. The firm has a market cap of $59.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.37, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $112.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $111.74.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.20 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 25.60%.The business’s revenue was up 27.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 20th will be given 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 166,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.38, for a total transaction of $18,655,080.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 51,723,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,812,641,978. This represents a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 three months. 0.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Aflac 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.