Evercore ISI Raises Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Price Target to $90.00

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) had its price target hoisted by equities researchers at Evercore ISI from $84.00 to $90.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would indicate a potential downside of 18.62% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Aflac from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.36.

Aflac Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Aflac stock opened at $110.59 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $104.15 and a 200-day moving average of $92.65. The stock has a market cap of $62.84 billion, a PE ratio of 12.21, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.95. Aflac has a 52-week low of $74.89 and a 52-week high of $111.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.10 and a current ratio of 0.10.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.23. Aflac had a net margin of 28.35% and a return on equity of 16.22%. The firm had revenue of $5.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.10 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.58 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac will post 6.75 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.94, for a total value of $197,880.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,158 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,796,552.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aflac

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,807,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $429,319,000 after buying an additional 285,576 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 1.3% in the second quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,429,316 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $202,437,000 after buying an additional 31,752 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 5.6% in 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. Truist Financial Corp increased its stake 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 valued at $172,338,000 after buying an additional 405,847 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Aflac by 6.7% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,806,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $155,140,000 after buying an additional 113,226 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.