SouthState Corp Sells 1,072 Shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

SouthState Corp lowered its holdings in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,072 shares during the quarter. SouthState Corp’s holdings in Aflac were worth $1,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aflac by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 5,453 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,145 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $424,000 after acquiring an additional 444 shares during the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management lifted its position in Aflac by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 2,947 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp boosted its stake in Aflac by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 6,745 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $556,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Aflac by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,190,954 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $263,254,000 after purchasing an additional 17,892 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 67.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AFL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Aflac from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 28th. Citigroup increased their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $81.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Aflac in a research report on Wednesday. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.50.

Insider Activity at Aflac

In other Aflac news, Director Thomas J. Kenny sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were 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 is available through the SEC website. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Aflac Stock Down 0.7 %

Aflac stock opened at $109.71 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $98.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $89.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Aflac Incorporated has a twelve month low of $73.62 and a twelve month high of $111.14. The company has a market capitalization of $62.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.95.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $5.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.10 billion. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.22% and a net margin of 28.35%. Aflac’s revenue was down .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.73 EPS for the current year.

Aflac Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.08%.

Aflac 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.