Aflac Incorporated (AFL) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.58 on March 3rd

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be given a dividend of 0.58 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50.

Aflac has raised its dividend by an average of 14.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 43 consecutive years. Aflac has a payout ratio of 27.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Aflac to earn $7.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.7%.

Aflac Stock Down 4.2 %

NYSE:AFL opened at $106.76 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Aflac has a 12-month low of $75.07 and a 12-month high of $115.50. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $111.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.97.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. The company 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.84 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Aflac will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AFL has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Aflac to $107.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America increased their price objective on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.93.

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.