Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Price Target Increased to $87.00 by Analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) had its price objective raised by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $83.00 to $87.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a market perform rating on the financial services provider's stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AFL. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an in-line rating to an underperform rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Aflac from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $82.00.

Aflac Trading Down 0.3 %

AFL stock traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $82.91. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,084,170 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,216,665. Aflac has a 52 week low of $64.10 and a 52 week high of $86.26. The stock has a market cap of $47.71 billion, a PE ratio of 10.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $81.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.34.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The business had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Aflac will post 6.43 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Aflac news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Aflac news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total transaction of $423,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,920 shares in the company, valued at $1,516,390.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.80% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 36.2% during the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 23,941 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,542,000 after buying an additional 6,369 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 17,268 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,112,000 after buying an additional 1,102 shares during the period. Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 210,634 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $13,563,000 after buying an additional 1,503 shares during the period. Dakota Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 1st quarter worth about $428,000. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,142 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $396,000 after buying an additional 417 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.