Meridian Wealth Management LLC Buys Shares of 2,802 Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)
Meridian Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL – Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000. A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Aflac by 9.0% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $740,141,000 after buying an additional 794,784 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Aflac during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $47,492,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Aflac by 1.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,160,465,000 after purchasing an additional 605,210 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Aflac by 8,861.1% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 449,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,113,000 after purchasing an additional 444,829 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Aflac by 5.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,295,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $559,953,000 after purchasing an additional 368,704 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock. Analysts Set New Price Targets AFL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Aflac from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aflac from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.38. Read Our Latest Research Report on Aflac Aflac Stock Up 1.4 % Shares of NYSE:AFL opened at $88.37 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $84.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.48. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $64.10 and a twelve month high of $88.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $50.21 billion, a PE ratio of 9.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.91. Aflac (NYSE:AFL – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.08. Aflac had a net margin of 27.67% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The firm had revenue of $5.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.09 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.55 EPS. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.46 EPS for the current fiscal year. Aflac Increases Dividend The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 22nd will be given a $0.50 dividend. This is a boost from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 21st. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.08%. Insiders Place Their Bets In other news, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $239,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,592 shares in the company, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Albert Riggieri sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.34, for a total value of $666,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 32,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,735,635.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 16,600 shares of company stock worth $1,379,914. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock. Aflac Profile (Free Report) 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.
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