Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Stock Price

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) had its price objective raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $103.00 to $105.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the financial services provider's stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on AFL. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Barclays set a $98.00 price objective on Aflac and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Aflac from $96.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Aflac from $118.00 to $124.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Aflac from $109.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $107.07.

Aflac Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE AFL traded down $0.72 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $101.56. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,348,141 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,152,606. The stock has a market cap of $54.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $103.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.09 and a quick ratio of 0.09. Aflac has a 52 week low of $90.38 and a 52 week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 21.27% and a return on equity of 15.55%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 37.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.66 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Aflac will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 21st were paid a dividend of $0.58 per share. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 21st. Aflac's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 2,750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.70, for a total value of $290,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 6,728 shares in the company, valued at $711,149.60. This represents a 29.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Joseph L. Moskowitz sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.79, for a total value of $106,790.00. Following the sale, the director owned 26,096 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,786,791.84. This trade represents a 3.69% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,750 shares of company stock worth $4,304,295. 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Aflac

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Aflac by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,340,298 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $5,310,640,000 after acquiring an additional 653,275 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,465,433 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,286,042,000 after purchasing an additional 288,482 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Aflac by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,296,014 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $754,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357,753 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 1.1% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 5,307,681 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $590,161,000 after purchasing an additional 56,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position 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 in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.