Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc Purchases New Shares in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc acquired a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,973 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $442,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Curio Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $104.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Aflac from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $104.93.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Charles D. Lake II sold 29,802 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.29, for a total value of $3,197,456.58. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 49,962 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,360,422.98. The trade was a 37.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total transaction of $3,906,830.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 70,992 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,496,045.28. The trade was a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 70,552 shares of company stock valued at $7,501,752 over the last three months. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of AFL stock traded up $1.50 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $103.71. 2,035,431 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,108,071. The company has a current ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a 12-month low of $86.46 and a 12-month high of $115.50. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $105.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.95. The company has a market capitalization of $56.07 billion, a PE ratio of 10.80, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.82.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a return on equity of 16.20% and a net margin of 28.76%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.66 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 37.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 21st were paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac's payout ratio is 36.25%.

Aflac 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.