HHM Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases 400 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

HHM Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 178.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 400 shares during the period. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $56,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AFL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Aflac during the 4th quarter valued at $197,820,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC raised its stake in Aflac by 7,001.0% in the second quarter. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC now owns 667,706 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $596,000 after buying an additional 658,303 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Aflac in the first quarter worth about $27,588,000. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of Aflac by 196.5% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 484,176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,945,000 after acquiring an additional 320,867 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Aflac by 161.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 311,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,723,000 after acquiring an additional 191,975 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on AFL shares. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Truist Financial raised their target price on Aflac from $82.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Aflac from $108.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.50.

Insider Activity

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

Aflac Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AFL opened at $107.32 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.10 and a quick ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.85, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $100.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $90.57. Aflac Incorporated has a 12 month low of $74.89 and a 12 month high of $111.14.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.23. Aflac had a net margin of 28.35% and a return on equity of 16.22%. The company had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.75 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s payout ratio is currently 22.08%.

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.