Norges Bank Purchases New Shares in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Key Points

• Norges Bank disclosed a new fourth-quarter stake in Aflac, buying 3.81 million shares valued at about $420.1 million, which gave it a 0.73% ownership position.
• Aflac also saw ongoing insider and institutional activity: several smaller investors added modestly to positions, while a major shareholder, Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan, sold 166,000 shares in an insider transaction under a pre-arranged trading plan.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed, with consensus rating at “Hold” and a price target of $112.27. The company recently reported earnings that missed EPS estimates but beat revenue expectations, and it continues to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.61 per share.

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 3,809,539 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $420,078,000. Norges Bank owned 0.73% of Aflac as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Stephens Inc. AR grew its position in shares of Aflac by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 21,945 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,420,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its position in shares of Aflac by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 19,088 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of Aflac by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 7,702 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $902,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Aflac by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 11,923 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,315,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, Sigma Planning Corp grew its position in shares of Aflac by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 9,831 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, major shareholder Post Holdings Co. Ltd. Japan sold 166,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.38, for a total value of $18,655,080.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 51,723,100 shares in the company, valued at $5,812,641,978. The trade was a 0.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 919,536 shares of company stock valued at $104,156,673 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AFL. Evercore upgraded shares of Aflac from a "strong sell" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Barclays set a $99.00 target price on shares of Aflac and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Aflac from a "buy (a-)" rating to a "buy (b+)" rating in a research report on Friday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Aflac from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $112.27.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE:AFL opened at $112.30 on Tuesday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $113.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $111.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market cap of $57.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.62. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $96.95 and a twelve month high of $119.81.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.80 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.20 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 25.60%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 27.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 20th were paid a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 20th. Aflac's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.70%.

Aflac Company Profile

Aflac Incorporated (American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus) is a provider of supplemental insurance products designed to help policyholders manage out-of-pocket health care and living expenses. The company underwrites a range of individual and group policies that typically pay cash benefits directly to insureds when covered events occur, enabling greater financial flexibility for medical treatment, hospital stays, critical illness, and related costs. Aflac's product mix includes supplemental health insurance, life insurance and other specialty coverages intended to complement primary medical plans.

Founded in the mid-20th century and headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, Aflac distributes its products through a combination of employer-sponsored programs, independent brokers and agents, and direct marketing.

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