Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Aflac Incorporated $AFL

Key Points

• Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC significantly reduced its holdings in Aflac by 86.5%, selling 15,274 shares and now owning only 2,385 shares, valued at $265,000.
• Several institutional investors, including UBS AM and Goldman Sachs Group, have increased their positions in Aflac, indicating strong institutional interest with 67.44% of the stock owned by hedge funds and other investors.
• Aflac's recent earnings report showed $1.78 EPS, exceeding analyst expectations but with a revenue decline of 19% year-over-year; the company also announced a $0.58 quarterly dividend and a stock buyback plan for 100 million shares.

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC reduced its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) by 86.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,385 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 15,274 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Aflac were worth $265,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 11.9% during 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 worth $543,154,000 after purchasing an additional 556,394 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 worth $397,510,000 after purchasing an additional 349,787 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 0.8% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,730,739 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $192,441,000 after purchasing an additional 13,575 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.6% during the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,607,387 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $178,725,000 after purchasing an additional 99,419 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 12,313.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,504,067 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $167,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,491,951 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $105.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Raymond James Financial decreased their price target on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Aflac from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $109.15.

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $107.16 on Thursday. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $96.95 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $105.14. The company has a market capitalization of $57.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.11 and a current ratio of 0.11.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.07. Aflac had a net margin of 15.32% and a return on equity of 15.08%. The business had revenue of $4.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.83 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Aflac's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.61%.

Aflac announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, August 12th that permits the company to buyback 100,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the firm'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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 25,105 shares of the company's stock, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company's stock.

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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