HB Wealth Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Key Points

• HB Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in Aflac Incorporated by 35.5% during the second quarter, selling 28,150 shares and holding 51,183 shares valued at approximately $5.4 million.
• Aflac reported earnings of $1.78 per share for the last quarter, surpassing estimates, but with a 19% decline in year-over-year revenue.
• The company's board approved a share buyback plan to repurchase 100 million shares, indicating confidence in the stock's value.

HB Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) by 35.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 51,183 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 28,150 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Aflac were worth $5,398,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AFL. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac in the first quarter worth $140,746,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Aflac by 133.2% in the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 758,424 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $84,329,000 after purchasing an additional 433,134 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Aflac by 10.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,575,054 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $397,510,000 after purchasing an additional 349,787 shares during the period. Aberdeen Group plc increased its stake in Aflac by 96.0% in the first quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 407,377 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $45,056,000 after purchasing an additional 199,583 shares during the period. Finally, Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Aflac by 53.6% in the first quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC now owns 523,236 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $58,179,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI reissued an "underperform" rating and set a $106.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of Aflac in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Aflac from $108.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $109.15.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.57, for a total transaction of $102,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 25,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,575,019.85. This trade represents a 3.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company's stock.

Aflac Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of AFL stock opened at $111.58 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $105.81 and a 200 day moving average of $105.33. 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 cap of $59.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.85. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $96.95 and a twelve month high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 15.08% and a net margin of 15.32%.Aflac's quarterly revenue was down 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

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

Aflac announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 12th that allows the company to repurchase 100,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.

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