Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC Has $263,000 Stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 199 shares during the quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Aflac were worth $263,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AFL. Czech National Bank grew its stake in Aflac by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 98,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,800,000 after buying an additional 5,912 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Aflac by 79.7% in the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 27,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 12,131 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of Aflac in the second quarter worth about $2,535,000. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in Aflac by 576.9% in the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 8,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $721,000 after buying an additional 6,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Aflac by 161.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 311,239 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,723,000 after purchasing an additional 191,975 shares in the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of Aflac from $84.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Barclays started coverage on Aflac in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $96.00 price target for the company. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $97.93.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE AFL opened at $112.04 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $110.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $99.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08. The company has a market cap of $62.24 billion, a PE ratio of 16.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. Aflac Incorporated has a 52-week low of $75.07 and a 52-week high of $115.50.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a net margin of 22.02% and a return on equity of 16.34%. The company had revenue of $2.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.84 earnings per share. Aflac’s revenue for the quarter was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Aflac Incorporated will post 7.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Aflac Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 20th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 20th. Aflac’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.12%.

Aflac Company 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.