Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Shares Sold by Cozad Asset Management Inc.

Cozad Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 5.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 13,286 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 797 shares during the quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,096,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in AFL. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,160,465,000 after acquiring an additional 605,210 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 9.0% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $740,141,000 after acquiring an additional 794,784 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,295,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,953,000 after acquiring an additional 368,704 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,808,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $369,036,000 after acquiring an additional 227,516 shares during the period. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 2.3% during the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 2,236,241 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $171,659,000 after acquiring an additional 49,479 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on AFL shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Three equities research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.15.

Aflac Trading Down 1.1 %

Aflac stock opened at $83.64 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $82.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $81.84. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $64.10 and a 52 week high of $86.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a current ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 24.92%. The firm had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.41 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aflac

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

Aflac 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.