6,100 Shares in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Purchased by Alpine Bank Wealth Management

Alpine Bank Wealth Management bought a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 6,100 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $678,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at $192,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the first quarter valued at $206,000. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the first quarter valued at $36,000. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at $276,000. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac in the first quarter valued at $865,000. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AFL. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $102.00 to $103.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $94.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $96.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $104.93.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 37,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were 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 owns 70,992 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,496,045.28. This represents a 34.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total transaction of $106,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,096 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,786,791.84. This represents a 3.69% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 40,750 shares of company stock worth $4,304,295. Insiders own 0.90% of the company's stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

AFL stock traded up $1.21 during trading on Friday, hitting $105.12. 11,667,977 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,152,036. The company has a quick ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $88.00 and a 52 week high of $115.50. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $104.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $105.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.82.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.01). Aflac had a net margin of 21.27% and a return on equity of 15.55%. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Aflac's dividend payout ratio is currently 36.25%.

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.