Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Short Interest Update

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 29th, there was short interest totalling 9,770,000 shares, an increase of 5.4% from the February 14th total of 9,270,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on AFL. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. UBS Group increased their target price on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Aflac from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Evercore ISI cut Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.36.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL stock traded up $0.12 on Monday, reaching $84.49. The stock had a trading volume of 2,358,005 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,308,518. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $81.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $80.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. Aflac has a 12 month low of $61.17 and a 12 month high of $86.20.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). The company had revenue of $3.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 24.92%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Aflac will post 6.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, SVP Albert Riggieri sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total transaction of $666,720.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 32,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,735,635.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Albert Riggieri sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total transaction of $666,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 32,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,735,635.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,493 shares of company stock worth $3,342,606. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Aflac

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Aflac by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,160,465,000 after purchasing an additional 605,210 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Aflac by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,645,876 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,929,682,000 after purchasing an additional 366,344 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in Aflac by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 16,415,385 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,145,794,000 after purchasing an additional 107,554 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Aflac by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,918,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $829,752,000 after purchasing an additional 30,665 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Aflac by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $740,141,000 after purchasing an additional 794,784 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.75% of the company’s stock.

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.