Ibex Wealth Advisors Sells 24,277 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Ibex Wealth Advisors reduced its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 69.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,721 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,277 shares during the quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Aflac were worth $1,109,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Aflac by 10,878.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 559,903 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,597,000 after purchasing an additional 554,803 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in Aflac by 471.4% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 600,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $67,080,000 after acquiring an additional 495,000 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Aflac by 670.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 556,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $57,572,000 after acquiring an additional 484,378 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Aflac by 26.6% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,338,000 after acquiring an additional 405,847 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the third quarter valued at about $42,290,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

In other news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total value of $2,558,529.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 222,618 shares in the company, valued at $23,018,701.20. This trade represents a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of AFL stock traded up $1.20 on Wednesday, reaching $108.48. 77,076 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,576,794. The stock has a market cap of $60.27 billion, a PE ratio of 16.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.00. Aflac Incorporated has a one year low of $75.07 and a one year high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $105.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.25.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.84 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a $0.58 dividend. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Aflac’s payout ratio is 30.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on AFL shares. Barclays increased their target price on Aflac from $96.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Aflac from $90.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.67.

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.