Aflac Incorporated Announces Fourth Quart...( COLUMBUS Ga. Jan. 30 /- Aflac Inc...),Health

COLUMBUS, Ga., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) today reported its fourth quarter results.

Total revenues benefited from the strengthening of the yen to the dollar in the fourth quarter, rising 9.0% to $4.0 billion, compared with $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006. Net earnings were $382 million, or $.78 per diluted share, compared with $332 million, or $.67 per share, a year ago. Net earnings included realized investment losses of $1 million, or nil per diluted share, compared with a gain of $3 million, or $.01 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2006. The change in fair value of the interest rate component of the cross-currency swaps related to the company's senior notes, as required by SFAS 133, increased net earnings by $1 million, or nil per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2007. The impact from SFAS 133 in the fourth quarter of 2006 was immaterial to net earnings and net earnings per diluted share.

We believe that an analysis of operating earnings, a non-GAAP financial measure, is vitally important to an understanding of Aflac's underlying profitability drivers. We define operating earnings as the profits we derive from our operations before realized investment gains and losses, the impact from SFAS 133, and nonrecurring items. Management uses operating earnings to evaluate the financial performance of Aflac's insurance operations because realized gains and losses, the impact from SFAS 133, and nonrecurring items tend to be driven by general economic conditions and events, and therefore may obscure the underlying fundamentals and trends in Aflac's insurance operations.

Furthermore, because a significant portion of our business is in Japan, where our functional
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