Aflac
Through the investors’ lenses
Each of these investors has said in public what they look at before buying. Click a name to see how this company measures up — a tick where it passes one of their tests, a cross where it does not.
Warren Buffett 2/2
| Measure | AFL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner earnings | — | positive | — |
| Return on equity | 12.4% | median 11.7% | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Operating margin | 26.4% | median 15.0% | ✓ |
Passes 2 of 2. To be clear: Warren Buffett has never said anything about Aflac. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Terry Smith 1/1
| Measure | AFL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | — | median 10.1% | — |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Operating margin | 26.4% | median 15.0% | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Terry Smith has never said anything about Aflac. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Charlie Munger 2/2
| Measure | AFL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on capital employed | — | median 10.1% | — |
| Return on equity | 12.4% | median 11.7% | ✓ |
| Operating margin | 26.4% | median 15.0% | ✓ |
Passes 2 of 2. To be clear: Charlie Munger has never said anything about Aflac. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Chuck Akre 2/2
| Measure | AFL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on equity | 12.4% | median 11.7% | ✓ |
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Cash conversion | — | median 1.78x | — |
| Return on equity, sustained | 9 of 10 | 8 of 10 above median | ✓ |
Passes 2 of 2. To be clear: Chuck Akre has never said anything about Aflac. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Philip Fisher 3/3
| Measure | AFL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin | 26.4% | median 15.0% | ✓ |
| Net margin | 21.2% | median 10.2% | ✓ |
| Return on capital employed | — | median 10.1% | — |
| Operating margin, held or improving | 26.4% | 10-yr median 20.0% | ✓ |
Passes 3 of 3. To be clear: Philip Fisher has never said anything about Aflac. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Benjamin Graham 1/1
| Measure | AFL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current ratio | — | 2.00x published | — |
| Long-term debt to working capital | — | 1.00x published | — |
| Positive earnings, ten years running | 10 yrs | 10 published | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Benjamin Graham has never said anything about Aflac. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
Peter Lynch 1/1
| Measure | AFL | Checked against | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debt to equity | — | median 0.79x | — |
| Net margin | 21.2% | median 10.2% | ✓ |
Passes 1 of 1. To be clear: Peter Lynch has never said anything about Aflac. These are the company’s own figures put through the tests he described. What he looks at, and why →
| Basis | Payout | Why |
|---|---|---|
| GAAP earnings | 34.2% | whyThe figure most screeners publish. |
Only one basis is shown, and that is the point. Operating and free cash flow swing with loan, deposit and reserve movements, so for a lender or insurer neither says anything about whether the dividend is affordable. Investment income is omitted for a second reason: insurers file it under the same tag a BDC uses, but it means investment income on float rather than the money that funds the distribution. Screeners that publish these for a bank are printing arithmetic, not information — and a wide gap between them is noise, not a finding.
Coverage rating 40 / 100 — Tight. ? Peer standing 23/50Direction 4/30Stability 13/20
Against its own history: 34.2% this year vs 21.2% median over the prior 5. A gap this size is usually a one-off — acquisition, settlement, cyclical trough — not a dividend that stopped being funded. The rating reads the latest year; the table shows the trend.
GAAP earnings payout, last 6 years
| Fiscal year | Payout |
|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 34.2% |
| 2024-12-31 | 21.2% |
| 2023-12-31 | 22.1% |
| 2022-12-31 | 23.2% |
| 2021-12-31 | 21.1% |
| 2020-12-31 | 16.8% |
Coverage worsened sharply this year, 21.2% to 34.2%, after no clear trend before it. One year is not a trend, but it is worth knowing which direction the last one moved.
Among the 48 banks & insurers companies here, 46% pay out a larger share on this basis.
The arithmetic
- GAAP earnings — dividends declared per share $2.33 ÷ diluted EPS $6.82
Where the figures came from
- 10-K filed 2026-02-25 · accession 0001628280-26-011402
All public at sec.gov — you should not have to take our word for it.
Computed straight from SEC XBRL. A number that looks wrong to you is more useful to us than agreement — tell us.
What the GAAP earnings payout ratio measures, and where every company here sits on it.
Also on: rated tight · when it files.
When this changes
Every figure above is recomputed whenever Aflac files. The monthly letter carries what filed, what moved, and one finding computed across every company here.