Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC Invests $3.25 Million in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Cliftonlarsonallen Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 31,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,246,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 8,092 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $723,000 after purchasing an additional 513 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Aflac by 27.6% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,243,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $111,029,000 after purchasing an additional 268,694 shares during the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd boosted its stake in Aflac by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 3,308 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $295,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in Aflac by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 9,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $879,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Aflac by 6.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $429,319,000 after purchasing an additional 285,576 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Aflac from $104.00 to $102.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.07.

Aflac Stock Up 1.1 %

Aflac stock traded up $1.15 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $104.80. 75,274 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,470,498. The company has a market cap of $58.22 billion, a PE ratio of 15.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $106.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.12. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week 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.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. Aflac’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.94%.

Insider Activity

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

Aflac Company 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.