Sawgrass Asset Management LLC Sells 247 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC reduced its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,693 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 247 shares during the quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $2,761,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. 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 acquiring an additional 285,576 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 1.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 31,752 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD increased 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 last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $198,279,000 after buying an additional 117,504 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Aflac by 26.6% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,338,000 after buying an additional 405,847 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. 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 company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.93.

Aflac Price Performance

Aflac stock opened at $111.32 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $61.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $110.41 and its 200 day moving average is $99.59. 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 one year low of $75.07 and a one year high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.84 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is 30.12%.

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.