Aflac price target raised to $124 from $118 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler raised the firm’s price target on Aflac (AFL) to $124 from $118 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm is generally reducing EPS estimates for the group driven by fee and spread headwinds, and favors underwriting areas of lifecoland as a result. Fee businesses have client outflows, less fee and trading days and seasonally higher expenses. Spread has prospect of variable investment income normalization being pushed out, floater impact and possible negative commentary around prospective spread income expectations in Piper’s opinion. The firm highlights Aflac and Globe Life (GL) among its Overweight names with both primarily focused on the underwriting portion of the industry.