AFLAC Earns $1.63 in Q1

Great earnings news for AFLAC ($AFL). Despite multiple freak-outs by the market, the company delivered the goods. For Q1, the company made $1.63 per share in operating earnings which beat Wall Street’s estimate by 11 cents per share.

They also affirmed their full-year forecast.

“With one quarter of the year complete, we continue to believe we are positioned for another year of solid financial performance. We still believe our goal for increasing operating earnings per diluted share is reasonable and attainable. I believe we’ve also done a very good job in managing our operations, including expense control. As the year progresses, we anticipate increasing our spending, particularly on marketing and IT initiatives. As we have said previously, given the continued low-interest-rate environment, especially in Japan, we expect to be at the low end of the 8% to 12% range for operating earnings per diluted share growth, excluding the impact of the yen. If the yen averages 80 to 85 to the dollar for the full year, we would expect reported operating earnings to be in the range of $6.09 to $6.34 per diluted share. Using that same exchange rate assumption, we would expect second quarter operating earnings to be $1.51 to $1.57 per diluted share.

“We historically announce our earnings guidance for the following year at our May analyst meeting. Although we have not yet finalized our projections for 2012, it is likely that our expected rate of earnings growth next year will be lower than 2011 due primarily to portfolio derisking activities and the continued low-interest-rate environment in Japan. After the effects of derisking and low interest rates in Japan and the United States have been fully integrated into our financial results, we should expect to see the rate of increase in earnings begin to improve.”

To anyone paying attention, this is exactly what they’ve been saying.

This is very good news for AFLAC!

AFLAC is trading at $53.81 in the after-hours market which is down 0.88%.

Posted by on April 27th, 2011 at 4:17 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.