Humana Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:HUM)

Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 12,200 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 32% compared to the average volume of 9,271 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Humana

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stephens Inc. AR grew its stake in shares of Humana by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 3,606 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,651,000 after purchasing an additional 679 shares during the last quarter. Ossiam lifted its stake in shares of Humana by 84.7% in the 4th quarter. Ossiam now owns 3,865 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,769,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of Humana by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 10,818 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,953,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. State of Tennessee Treasury Department grew its stake in shares of Humana by 37.8% during the fourth quarter. State of Tennessee Treasury Department now owns 58,251 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $26,668,000 after purchasing an additional 15,987 shares during the period. Finally, Vontobel Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Humana by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Asset Management Inc. now owns 433,085 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $205,969,000 after buying an additional 29,136 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.38% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HUM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut Humana from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $519.00 to $253.00 in a report on Monday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Humana from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $308.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Humana in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $374.00 target price on the stock. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Humana in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Humana from $349.00 to $250.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Humana currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.86.

Humana Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HUM opened at $245.43 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $331.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $341.88. Humana has a one year low of $213.31 and a one year high of $530.54.

Humana (NYSE:HUM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The insurance provider reported $6.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.89 by $1.07. Humana had a net margin of 1.53% and a return on equity of 16.12%. The firm had revenue of $29.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $8.94 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Humana will post 16.01 EPS for the current year.

Humana Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.885 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $3.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. Humana’s payout ratio is presently 22.04%.

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.