MCF Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM)

MCF Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) by 19.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 3,150 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 766 shares during the period. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Humana were worth $801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Humana by 118.9% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,425,302 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $532,564,000 after buying an additional 774,085 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Humana by 261,025.1% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 738,984 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,340,660,000 after acquiring an additional 738,701 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Humana by 23.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,388,859 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,073,387,000 after acquiring an additional 643,291 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in Humana by 55.6% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 600,317 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $190,145,000 after purchasing an additional 214,535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Humana by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 2,506,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $793,830,000 after purchasing an additional 187,903 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on HUM shares. Bank of America raised Humana from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $247.00 to $308.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Leerink Partners cut shares of Humana from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $400.00 to $250.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Humana from $380.00 to $250.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 4th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Humana from $270.00 to $288.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Humana in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $302.70.

Humana Stock Performance

Shares of HUM stock opened at $284.74 on Wednesday. Humana Inc. has a 12-month low of $213.31 and a 12-month high of $411.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.76 and a quick ratio of 1.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $273.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $306.62.

Humana (NYSE:HUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The insurance provider reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.68. Humana had a return on equity of 13.20% and a net margin of 1.18%. The company had revenue of $29.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.66 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Humana Inc. will post 16.11 EPS for the current year.

Humana Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.885 dividend. This represents a $3.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. Humana’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.36%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Timothy S. Huval sold 3,703 shares of Humana stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $256.26, for a total transaction of $948,930.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,096,463.06. The trade was a 31.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.