Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Short Interest Down 6.8% in October

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) saw a significant decrease in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,110,000 shares, a decrease of 6.8% from the October 15th total of 9,770,000 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aflac

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 18,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,600,000 after acquiring an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 9.5% in the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 5,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $454,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its position in shares of Aflac by 263.2% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 18,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 13,434 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 213.6% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 37,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,195,000 after buying an additional 25,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its position in Aflac by 637.7% in the 1st quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 29,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,492,000 after buying an additional 25,086 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Aflac Stock Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $112.04 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $110.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $99.89. 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 has a 1 year low of $75.07 and a 1 year high of $115.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.24 billion, a PE ratio of 16.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.84 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Aflac will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.12%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Three 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.93.

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.