Aflac Misses Q2 Profit Estimates as Strong Dollar, Japan Weakness Bite
AFL sits 28% above its 52-week low of $97.47.
Summary
Aflac's Q2 adjusted EPS of $1.75 missed the $1.77 consensus, with revenue of $4.1B also below the $4.16B estimate. The stronger dollar shaved 5 cents off adjusted profit, and Japan unit net premiums tumbled 12.7% to $1.5B. This follows the earlier PR Newswire release that highlighted a 38% jump in net earnings to $825M but omitted the miss versus expectations. The miss and Japan weakness are the new, negative signals for traders. U.S. premiums rose 2.3% and sales grew 2.6%, providing some offset. The stock is trading near its 52-week high, so this earnings disappointment could trigger profit-taking.
At the time of this announcement, AFL was trading at $125.00 on NYSE in the Finance sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $64.5B. The 52-week trading range was $97.47 to $130.22. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10. Source: Reuters.