Merit Financial Group LLC Raises Position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Merit Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL - Free Report) by 23.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,942 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 9,420 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Aflac were worth $5,063,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Aflac by 10,878.5% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 559,903 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $62,597,000 after purchasing an additional 554,803 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 471.4% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 600,000 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $67,080,000 after acquiring an additional 495,000 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in shares of Aflac by 670.9% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 556,576 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $57,572,000 after acquiring an additional 484,378 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in Aflac by 26.6% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 1,929,662 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $172,338,000 after acquiring an additional 405,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Aflac in the third quarter valued at approximately $42,290,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other news, EVP Audrey B. Tillman sold 24,744 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.40, for a total value of $2,558,529.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 222,618 shares in the company, valued at $23,018,701.20. The trade was a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AFL. StockNews.com upgraded Aflac from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Aflac from $108.00 to $107.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $103.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $102.07.

Aflac Stock Performance

AFL traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $106.43. 2,080,419 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,698,974. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $106.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.00. Aflac Incorporated has a 1-year low of $75.07 and a 1-year high of $115.50. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.84 earnings per share. Aflac's revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Aflac Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.58 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. This is an increase from Aflac's previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. Aflac's dividend payout ratio is 30.12%.

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.