Petix & Botte Co Invests $874,000 in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Petix & Botte Co purchased a new position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 10,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $874,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 66,806 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,511,000 after acquiring an additional 7,226 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,387,000 after acquiring an additional 2,045 shares during the period. Lincoln National Corp grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 18.3% in the fourth quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 6,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares during the period. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Summit Trail Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 7,287 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $601,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of Aflac stock traded up $1.52 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $84.73. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,952,154 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,304,566. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $83.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $81.94. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $64.10 and a 12-month high of $86.26. The company has a market cap of $48.15 billion, a PE ratio of 9.35, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.08. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 27.67%. The business had revenue of $5.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.55 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 21st. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 22.08%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at $1,516,390.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total value of $423,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at $1,516,390.40. The transaction 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 business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total value of $666,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 32,825 shares in the company, valued at $2,735,635.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com raised Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $82.31.

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.