Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Increases Holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 233,111 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 11,996 shares during the quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd.'s holdings in Aflac were worth $26,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $429,319,000 after purchasing an additional 285,576 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its stake 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 worth $202,437,000 after buying an additional 31,752 shares during the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its position in 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 worth $254,382,000 after buying an additional 83,289 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in Aflac by 5.6% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 2,220,125 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $198,279,000 after buying an additional 117,504 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Aflac by 26.6% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $172,338,000 after purchasing an additional 405,847 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Aflac Trading Up 1.1 %

AFL stock traded up $1.20 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $111.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 175,371 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,212,002. The company has a market cap of $61.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $75.07 and a 12 month high of $115.50. The business's 50 day moving average price is $110.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $100.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.84 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.12%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AFL. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target 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, Barclays started coverage on shares of Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an "underweight" rating and a $96.00 price target for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Aflac has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $97.93.

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.