Aflac pockets a profit of $832 million, says it’s on track to hit 2018 financial goals

As insurer Aflac was letting Wall Street know Thursday that it brought in a tidy profit of $832 million in the second quarter of 2018, its CEO reassured investors and shareholders that the firm is on pace to meet or beat its financial goals in 2018.

“Consistent strong performance in the first half of the year puts us on track to exceed our previously communicated adjusted EPS (earnings per share) guidance for the year. Therefore, we are upwardly revising our 2018 adjusted earnings per diluted share guidance from $3.72 to $3.88 to the range of $3.90 to $4.06,” Aflac Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dan Amos said in a statement issued with the company’s earnings report.

Aflac, headquartered on Wynnton Road in Columbus, racked up the profit, or net earnings, on total revenues of nearly $5.6 billion for the April-June period, which was 3 percent higher than the same three months of 2017.

The $832 million profit equates to $1.07 per diluted share and is nearly 17 percent higher than the $713 million that the supplemental health and life insurer reported a year ago.

There was good news for shareholders. The company said its third-quarter dividend will be 26 cents per share, a sum approved by Aflac’s board of directors and payable Sept. 1 to those owning the firm’s stock as of Aug. 22.

Aflac released its quarterly figures Thursday after the close of the New York Stock Exchange. In earlier trading during the day, its shares rose 63 cents to finish at $44.41. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $38.31 to $46.19 per share. The company did pull the trigger on its first common stock split in 17 years earlier this year, otherwise Thursday’s close would have been $88 and change per share.

Amos, speaking about the company’s business, said Aflac Japan performed “better than expected” due to strong investment income and benefit ratios. Japan makes up more than three-fourths of the firm’s insurance sales. The CEO said he was “pleased” with the growth in the company’s U.S. operations and that the sales momentum should continue into the fourth quarter of this year.

“We believe we have the right strategy in place for continuing to grow our operations in the U.S.,” he said.

The executive said the firm’s management staff remains “committed” to a strong capital position, while also boosting the stock dividend, buying back shares and putting cash back into the business where it deems necessary.

He projected share repurchases will be somewhere between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion overall this year. That includes the $306 million in shares repurchased in the second quarter. The company has nearly 85 million remaining shares available to buy back under an authorization by its board of directors.

The firm also said at the end of June it had total investments and cash of nearly $128 billion, up about $6 billion one year ago.

Thursday’s report also included financial data through the first six months of this year. Aflac reached a profit of $1.5 billion, or $1.98 per diluted share during the January-June timeframe. That was up nearly 19 percent from $1.3 billion through the first half of 2017. Total revenues were $11 billion in the first six months of this year, 3 percent higher than the $10.7 billion reported a year ago.

Aflac noted that the stronger yen-to-the-dollar exchange rate “magnified” the increases in its financial figures in terms of the dollar amounts. The exchange rate fluctuates often.

The company’s global workforce tops 10,000, with just over 4,000 of those employees earning a paycheck at its two large campuses in Columbus.

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 4:46 PM.