FBR’s Target for AFL = $69

I thought Aflac made it pretty clear that they were going to survive Europe’s troubles, but apparently FBR was late to get the word:

Aflac is well positioned to weather credit losses in Europe and investors should take advantage of the discounted stock of the disability insure, an analyst said Thursday.

FBR Capital Markets analyst Randy Binner upgraded Aflac’s shares to “Outperform” from “Market Perform,” and lifted the price target to $69 from $59. Binner said the stock has lagged its peer group by 14 percent in the last three months, likely on heightened concerns over European sovereign debt.

Aflac’s exposure to debt holdings from Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain total $3.4 billion, or 34 percent of equity. Binner said the company has more than enough cash on hand, about $1.3 billion, to cover losses in even the most stressed scenarios.

Additionally, the analyst still expects Aflac to buy back between 6 million and 12 million shares over the next two years, despite European losses.

Posted by on January 13th, 2011 at 11:00 am


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