Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Announces Earnings Results

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.08, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $5.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.09 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 17.59% and a net margin of 24.92%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.55 EPS.

Aflac Trading Down 1.4 %

AFL traded down $1.18 on Thursday, hitting $83.39. 2,720,216 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,275,804. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.98 billion, a PE ratio of 10.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.91. Aflac has a 12 month low of $64.10 and a 12 month high of $86.26. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.86. 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 Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. This is a positive change from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.81%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AFL. UBS Group increased their price target on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Aflac from $83.00 to $81.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Evercore ISI downgraded Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.15.

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $239,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at $445,850.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now owns 86,090 shares in the company, valued at $6,879,451.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 46,493 shares of company stock worth $3,765,706. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Aflac

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.