Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) Raises Dividend to $0.58 Per Share

Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of 0.58 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.17%. This is an increase from Aflac’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50.

Aflac has raised its dividend by an average of 14.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 43 consecutive years. Aflac has a dividend payout ratio of 27.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research 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 Down 4.2 %

NYSE:AFL opened at $106.76 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $59.31 billion, a PE ratio of 16.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $111.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $101.93.

Aflac (NYSE:AFL) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.16 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.47. Aflac had a return on equity of 16.34% and a net margin of 22.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.30 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.84 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 40.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Aflac will post 7.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on Aflac from $84.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Aflac from $114.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Aflac from $115.00 to $124.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Aflac from $91.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Aflac from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.