FIXED INCOME

Fixed Income

Fixed Income

Aflac

AFLAC Incorporated is an international retaining business based in Columbus, Georgia. Today the firm conducts business operations in all 50 United States and Puerto Rico as well as in Japan. AFLAC has more than 48,000 licensed agents worldwide. In its geographical areas of operation the firm insures more than 40 million people; AFLAC insures one in four Japanese households. Recently it has grown to become the second largest insurance company in Japan and the second most profitable foreign company operating in Japan. Overall AFLAC is the number one foreign life insurance company, in terms of volume of business, operating throughout the world.

Today the company's principal business is supplemental health insurance, which is marketed and administered by independent agents. AFLAC's policies are sold to companies, which employee three or more persons. The employees pay premiums by deducting the amount due from the paycheck; this deduction occurs before tax. In most cases, the policies are marketed to firms that have existing major medical group insurance in place. Most insurance plans offered by AFLAC, except for cancer and life insurance policies, are designed to be sold in group form in order to supplement major medical insurance by paying expenses not covered by an employee's medical plan. An example of such expenses include travel, lodging, and/or meal expense in the case that an policyholder would have to travel to receive necessary health care. As of now, AFLAC currently serves more than 230,000 U.S. businesses with insurance products. According to the company, the very popular AFLAC duck, who first appeared in a marketing campaign launched in 2000, has brought a tremendous amount of visibility and an increase of recent sales to the firm.

In the current quarter, AFLAC's earnings per share of stock are estimated to be slightly under that of the entire industry. However in the next quarter the firm's stock earnings are speculated to be nearly 2 times the earnings of the industry. By years end AFLAC looks to be behind the industry percentage for earnings growth, but in the upcoming year estimates that growth of earnings will be 1% higher than the average of the insurance industry. AFLAC's Price/Earnings ratio is now at 19.1. This indicates that there is a degree of confidence that investors have in the firm's future performance. In general AFLAC's P/E ratio shows that investors are willing to pay approximately $19.10 for each $1.00 of the company's ...