3 Bullish Takeaways From Aflac's Latest Quarter

Aflac Inc (NYSE: AFL) is clearly not the most exciting stock in today's bull market. The supplemental-insurance provider certainly doesn't share the gaudy year-to-date return numbers of some big technology companies that have dominated business headlines recently, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been rewarding to be an Aflac shareholder. The company's stock has returned 20.4% year to date, noticeably better than the S&P 500's return of 15.7%.

When the company recently reported its third-quarter earnings, the numbers didn't reveal too many surprises. Total revenue slumped to $5.5 billion, a 3.7% decrease year over year. Operating earnings, the metric Aflac's management uses to evaluate the financial performance of the company's insurance operations, decreased 5.2% to $676 million. To be fair, however, a good portion of these decreases were driven by the weakness in the yen; a significant piece of Aflac's earnings are denominated in the currency due to its huge presence in Japan.

Just because Aflac's headline numbers were fairly in line with expectations, however, doesn't mean there weren't some important things going on with this insurance provider beneath the surface. After going through the conference call transcript provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, three things in particular stand out -- all of which should be taken as encouraging signs for current investors.

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Source: Fool.com