AFLAC’s Strange Ride

This is shaping up to be a very good morning. All 20 Buy List stocks are up. AFLAC (AFL) has been as high as $52.35 which is the highest price in over four months.
By the way, let’s take a step back and laugh at Wall Street for a moment. AFLAC reported Q2 earnings-per-share of $1.35 on July 27. That was two cents better than expectations. In April, they said to expect Q2 to range between $1.33 and $1.38 per share. In other words, this last earnings report was hardly a major surprise.
Yet, how did AFLAC’s shares respond to the earnings report? They sold off! The stock closed at $50.41 on July 27. The next day, they dropped 2.3%. By late August, the stock was off by more than 12%. Then, suddenly, everything turned around. AFLAC not only gained back everything it lost but it’s actually higher than where it was before the earnings report. This makes no sense. There’s been no critical news between then and now. We’ve simply seen traders push a staid stock down and up by a few billion dollars for really no reason. Remember that next time you place a buy order.

Posted by on September 13th, 2010 at 10:48 am


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