Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Sells 12,051 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC reduced its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 293,270 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,051 shares during the quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $32,788,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $429,319,000 after buying an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Aflac by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,694,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $524,846,000 after acquiring an additional 281,148 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its position in shares of Aflac by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $202,437,000 after acquiring an additional 31,752 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its stake in shares of Aflac by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,276,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,382,000 after purchasing an additional 83,289 shares during the period. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after purchasing an additional 117,504 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. 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 research report on Thursday, October 10th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Aflac in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.93.

Aflac Stock Down 2.3 %

AFL stock opened at $111.41 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $61.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $111.23 and a 200-day moving average of $101.63. 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 Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.84 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a $0.58 dividend. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.12%.

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.