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

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th.

Aflac has increased its dividend payment by an average of 14.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 43 years. Aflac has a payout ratio of 27.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Aflac to earn $7.21 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 27.7%.

Aflac Stock Performance

Shares of AFL stock opened at $112.04 on Tuesday. Aflac has a one year low of $75.07 and a one year high of $115.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.08 and a quick ratio of 0.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $110.46 and a 200-day moving average of $99.89. The stock has a market cap of $62.24 billion, a PE ratio of 16.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The business had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.84 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 40.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Aflac will post 7.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AFL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on Aflac from $84.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Bank of America boosted their price target on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Aflac from $106.00 to $107.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Aflac presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.93.

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.