AFLAC’s Earnings

After the bell, AFLAC (AFL) reported first-quarter operating earnings of $1.41 per share. With insurance companies, it’s more important to focus on operating earnings since net earnings can be heavily influenced by investments. The Street was looking for $1.32.
This is what AFL had to say about guidance:

With one quarter of the year complete, we continue to believe we are positioned for another year of solid financial performance. Although challenges posed by weak economic conditions clearly persist, particularly in the United States, we still believe our goal for increasing operating earnings per diluted share is reasonable and attainable. As such, our goal remains an increase of 9% to 12% this year in operating earnings per diluted share, excluding the impact of the yen. If the yen averages 90 to 95 to the dollar for the full year, we would expect reported earnings to be in the range of $5.24 to $5.56 per diluted share. Using that same exchange rate assumption, we would expect second quarter operating earnings to be $1.33 to $1.38 per diluted share.

The stock is at $52.41 and they see full-year EPS coming in between $5.24 and $5.56. That’s a forward P/E Ratio of 9.4 to 10. AFLAC is a very good buy.

Posted by on April 27th, 2010 at 4:17 pm


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