Stiles Financial Services Inc Has $254,000 Stake in Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL)

Stiles Financial Services Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 212 shares during the quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc’s holdings in Aflac were worth $254,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Aflac by 1.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,208,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,160,465,000 after acquiring an additional 605,210 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in Aflac by 0.7% during the second quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 16,415,385 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,145,794,000 after acquiring an additional 107,554 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Aflac by 0.9% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,888,265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $765,297,000 after acquiring an additional 105,298 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Aflac by 9.0% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,643,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $740,141,000 after acquiring an additional 794,784 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Aflac by 5.3% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,295,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $559,953,000 after acquiring an additional 368,704 shares during the period. 67.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on AFL. Evercore ISI cut shares of Aflac from an “in-line” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $76.00 to $78.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced 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. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $61.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Aflac from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group increased 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Aflac has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.00.

Aflac Price Performance

NYSE:AFL traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $83.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 248,165 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,188,289. Aflac Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $64.10 and a fifty-two week high of $86.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $47.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $81.77 and a 200-day moving average of $81.34.

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

Insider Transactions at Aflac

In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Masatoshi Koide sold 30,493 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Arthur Reginald Collins sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $239,190.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 5,592 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $445,850.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 46,493 shares of company stock valued at $3,765,706. Corporate insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

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.