AFL · Financials(accident & health insurance) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Aflac Inc reported revenue of $17.2 billion in fiscal 2025, after shrinking 3.0% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from 18.2% in 2016 to 27.7%. Of the $46.9 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 44.9% went to buybacks and 18.6% to dividends; the share count fell 35.4%. On the accounting screens, it passes 3 of 6 Piotroski tests; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202517.2B-3.0% a year over 9 years
Operating margin27.7%gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow—
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score3/6tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
010.0B20.0B30.0B
2016Revenue 22.6BOperating income 4.1B
2017Revenue 21.7BOperating income 4.1B
2018Revenue 21.8BOperating income 4.4B
2019Revenue 22.3BOperating income 4.5B
2020Revenue 22.1BOperating income 4.4B
2021Revenue 21.6BOperating income 4.9B
2022Revenue 19.1BOperating income 4.2B
2023Revenue 18.7BOperating income 5.5B
2024Revenue 18.9BOperating income 6.6B
2025Revenue 17.2BOperating income 4.8B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
-3.6%
-5.0%
-3.0%
Operating income
+4.5%
+1.5%
+1.6%
Net income
-6.2%
-5.3%
+3.6%
Earnings per share
-0.5%
+0.4%
+8.7%
Dividend per share
+13.4%
+15.8%
+12.2%
Shares
-5.7%
-5.7%
-4.7%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
0.0%10.0%20.0%30.0%40.0%
2016Operating 18.2%Net 11.8%
2017Operating 18.9%Net 21.2%
2018Operating 20.0%Net 13.4%
2019Operating 20.0%Net 14.8%
2020Operating 19.9%Net 21.6%
2021Operating 22.9%Net 19.6%
2022Operating 21.7%Net 23.1%
2023Operating 29.2%Net 24.9%
2024Operating 34.9%Net 28.8%
2025Operating 27.7%Net 21.2%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
12.4%
Return on assets
3.1%
Asset turnover
0.15×
Overheads (SG&A)
19.0% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
02.0B4.0B6.0B
2016Net income 2.7B
2017Net income 4.6B
2018Net income 2.9B
2019Net income 3.3B
2020Net income 4.8B
2021Net income 4.2B
2022Net income 4.4B
2023Net income 4.7B
2024Net income 5.4B
2025Net income 3.6B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
46.9B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 0%0
Acquisitions 0%0
Dividends 19%8.7B
Share buybacks 45%21.1B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 36%17.1B
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0.00$2.50$5.00$7.50$10.00
2016Earnings per share $3.21Dividend per share $0.79
2017Earnings per share $5.77Dividend per share $0.83
2018Earnings per share $3.77Dividend per share $1.02
2019Earnings per share $4.43Dividend per share $1.03
2020Earnings per share $6.67Dividend per share $1.07
2021Earnings per share $6.25Dividend per share $1.26
2022Earnings per share $6.93Dividend per share $1.54
2023Earnings per share $7.78Dividend per share $1.61
2024Earnings per share $9.63Dividend per share $1.92
2025Earnings per share $6.82Dividend per share $2.24
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
500.0M600.0M700.0M800.0M900.0M
2016Diluted shares 827.8M
2017Diluted shares 797.9M
2018Diluted shares 774.6M
2019Diluted shares 746.4M
2020Diluted shares 716.2M
2021Diluted shares 676.7M
2022Diluted shares 637.7M
2023Diluted shares 598.7M
2024Diluted shares 565.0M
2025Diluted shares 534.9M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
22× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
— current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
—
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
3of 6 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✕Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)failed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
–More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
The accounts lack a line it needs (retained earnings, current assets or liabilities).
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
Reported profit comfortably exceeds the cash generated (3,646M against 2,555M).
Benign
Growth consuming working capital, or the seasonality of the year-end.
Worrying
Profit held up by accounting entries that do not turn into money.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.