Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.50

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th.

Aflac has raised its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years and has increased 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. 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 Up 1.5 %

Aflac stock opened at $111.32 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $110.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $99.70. The company has a market cap of $61.84 billion, a PE ratio of 16.77, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac has a fifty-two week low of $75.07 and a fifty-two week high of $115.50.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.84 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Aflac will post 7.22 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Citigroup increased their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Truist Financial increased their target price on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.