Analysts Set Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Target Price at $82.15

Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $82.15.

A number of analysts have commented on AFL shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Raymond James upped their target price on Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group upped their target price on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI downgraded Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th.

Aflac Stock Down 1.1 %

Aflac stock opened at $83.64 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a current ratio of 0.06. Aflac has a one year low of $64.10 and a one year high of $86.26.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The business had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Aflac will post 6.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total transaction of $423,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.62, for a total transaction of $423,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 17,920 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,516,390.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total value of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 86,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,879,451.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706 over the last ninety days. 0.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Aflac

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Aflac in the 3rd quarter valued at $268,000. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC increased its position in Aflac by 471.4% during the 3rd quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Aflac by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 39,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,995,000 after buying an additional 1,770 shares during the period. Secure Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Aflac during the 3rd quarter worth $468,000. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its position in Aflac by 45.2% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 94,486 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,252,000 after buying an additional 29,395 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

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.