Humana (NYSE:HUM) Trading Down 2.1% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) fell 2.1% during trading on Thursday after Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from $415.00 to $353.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Humana traded as low as $308.19 and last traded at $309.41. 466,882 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 1,987,235 shares. The stock had previously closed at $315.98.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on HUM. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Humana from $334.00 to $326.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $342.00 target price (down previously from $470.00) on shares of Humana in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. TheStreet cut shares of Humana from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. StockNews.com cut shares of Humana from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Stephens cut their target price on shares of Humana from $550.00 to $430.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 26th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $433.74.

Insider Activity

In other Humana news, Director Jorge S. Mesquita purchased 545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were bought at an average price of $367.09 per share, with a total value of $200,064.05. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 2,578 shares in the company, valued at approximately $946,358.02. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HUM. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Humana during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $676,800,000. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Humana during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $489,300,000. Putnam Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Humana by 550.3% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 875,489 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $400,808,000 after acquiring an additional 740,858 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Humana by 255.4% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 620,793 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $215,241,000 after acquiring an additional 446,124 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Humana by 35.9% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,523,835 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $741,409,000 after acquiring an additional 402,559 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.38% of the company’s stock.

Humana Stock Down 1.4 %

The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market cap of $37.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $328.56 and its 200 day moving average is $395.71.

Humana (NYSE:HUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The insurance provider reported $7.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.12 by $1.11. The firm had revenue of $29.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.52 billion. Humana had a net margin of 2.34% and a return on equity of 19.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $9.38 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Humana Inc. will post 16.06 EPS for the current year.

Humana Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be given a $0.885 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $3.54 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%. Humana’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.86%.

Humana Company Profile

Humana Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides medical and specialty insurance products in the United States. It operates through two segments, Insurance and CenterWell. The company offers medical and supplemental benefit plans to individuals. It has a contract with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to administer the Limited Income Newly Eligible Transition prescription drug plan program; and contracts with various states to provide Medicaid, dual eligible, and long-term support services benefits.