Great Lakes Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Key Points

• Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Aflac by 93.4% during the first quarter, now owning just 4,884 shares valued at $543,000.
• Aflac's Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program allowing repurchase of 100,000,000 shares, indicating management's belief that the stock is undervalued.
• The company reported $1.78 EPS for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations, although revenue decreased by 19.0% compared to the previous year.

Great Lakes Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) by 93.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,884 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 69,318 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC's holdings in Aflac were worth $543,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 12,313.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,504,067 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $167,237,000 after acquiring an additional 1,491,951 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the first quarter valued at approximately $140,746,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,250,905 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $543,154,000 after purchasing an additional 556,394 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Aflac during the fourth quarter worth $48,081,000. Finally, Citigroup Inc. raised its position in Aflac by 133.2% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 758,424 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $84,329,000 after buying an additional 433,134 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $111.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Raymond James Financial dropped their target price on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Barclays set a $98.00 price target on Aflac and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $109.15.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL stock traded down $0.83 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $108.30. 1,834,958 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,392,392. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $104.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.16. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $96.95 and a 52-week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.07. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.The business had revenue of $4.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 earnings per share. Aflac's revenue for the quarter was down 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a $0.58 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Aflac's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.61%.

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

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The shares were 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. This represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company's stock.

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.