Aflac Incorporated to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:AFL)

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 31st, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, September 2nd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st.

Aflac has increased its dividend by an average of 14.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 43 consecutive years. Aflac has a payout ratio of 28.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Aflac to earn $6.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.2%.

Aflac Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of AFL stock opened at $105.21 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $59.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.61, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.95. Aflac has a fifty-two week low of $72.78 and a fifty-two week high of $105.39. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $93.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.10.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.58 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Aflac will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of Aflac stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,158 shares in the company, valued at $1,796,552.52. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AFL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Aflac from $84.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.69.

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.