Courier Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Courier Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 2,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AFL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $175,416,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 62.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,936,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $317,865,000 after purchasing an additional 1,897,212 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,812,956 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $634,004,000 after purchasing an additional 1,640,984 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Aflac in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $72,249,000. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Aflac by 67.3% in the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,712,568 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 689,173 shares during the last quarter. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AFL. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Aflac from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Aflac from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Aflac from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.36.

Aflac Trading Up 0.8 %

AFL stock opened at $85.62 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a current ratio of 0.06. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.74. Aflac Incorporated has a 52 week low of $62.95 and a 52 week high of $86.20. The company has a market capitalization of $49.27 billion, a PE ratio of 11.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.91.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The financial services provider reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.47 by ($0.22). Aflac had a net margin of 24.92% and a return on equity of 17.59%. The business had revenue of $3.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Aflac Incorporated will post 6.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 86,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,879,451.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $445,850.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.91, for a total transaction of $2,436,695.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 86,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,879,451.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706 over the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.