Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Sells 12,341 Shares of Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Key Points

• Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. reduced its stake in Aflac Inc. by 8.6%, selling 12,341 shares, leading to ownership of 130,582 shares worth approximately $13.77 million.
• Aflac reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.78 for the last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, despite a 19% decrease in quarterly revenue compared to the previous year.
• The company has authorized a share buyback plan allowing it to repurchase up to 100 million shares, which often signals a belief that the stock is undervalued.

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. lowered its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 130,582 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 12,341 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.'s holdings in Aflac were worth $13,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Aflac by 12,313.9% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Aflac during the first quarter valued at approximately $140,746,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,081,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in shares of Aflac by 133.2% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 758,424 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $84,329,000 after purchasing an additional 433,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 10.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,575,054 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $397,510,000 after buying an additional 349,787 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AFL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Aflac from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $109.15.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL stock traded down $0.59 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $107.45. The company had a trading volume of 2,673,811 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,633,173. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.11 and a quick ratio of 0.11. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $96.95 and a 52-week high of $115.50. The stock has a market cap of $57.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.37, a PEG ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 0.85. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $104.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.15.

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

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Aflac's payout ratio is presently 52.61%.

Aflac declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 12th that allows the company to repurchase 100,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 25,105 shares in the company, valued at $2,575,019.85. The trade was a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.