New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 272 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

New York State Teachers Retirement System decreased its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 0.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 357,549 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 272 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Aflac were worth $37,707,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AFL. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the first quarter worth about $140,746,000. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 133.2% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 758,424 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,329,000 after acquiring an additional 433,134 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 10.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,575,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $397,510,000 after acquiring an additional 349,787 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 26.2% in the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,654,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $174,515,000 after acquiring an additional 343,881 shares during the period. Finally, Aberdeen Group plc boosted its stake in shares of Aflac by 96.0% in the first quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 407,377 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,056,000 after acquiring an additional 199,583 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on AFL shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $102.00 target price (up from $100.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $125.00 target price on Aflac and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $109.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $102,570.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 25,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,575,019.85. The trade was a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Aflac Trading Down 2.8%

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $106.73 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $108.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $105.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $96.95 and a 1-year high of $115.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.20, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.86.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.The company had revenue of $5.91 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. Aflac’s payout ratio is presently 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, August 12th that allows the company to buyback 100,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Aflac

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.