Short Interest in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) Expands By 15.9%

Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,380,000 shares, an increase of 15.9% from the October 15th total of 3,780,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days. Approximately 3.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HUM. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Humana by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 105,976 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $33,567,000 after acquiring an additional 3,085 shares during the last quarter. Heritage Oak Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Humana in the second quarter worth about $3,456,000. Mandatum Life Insurance Co Ltd grew its position in Humana by 115.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mandatum Life Insurance Co Ltd now owns 14,000 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $4,434,000 after purchasing an additional 7,500 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Humana by 3.0% during the second quarter. APG Asset Management US Inc. now owns 67,669 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,274,000 after buying an additional 1,955 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its position in Humana by 472.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 10,098 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,501,000 after acquiring an additional 8,333 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on HUM. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Humana from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $308.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Humana from $349.00 to $250.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Humana from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $519.00 to $253.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Humana in a report on Friday, October 11th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Finally, Leerink Partners downgraded Humana from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $400.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $315.86.

Humana Price Performance

NYSE HUM opened at $275.67 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $281.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $331.94. The stock has a market cap of $33.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. Humana has a 52 week low of $213.31 and a 52 week high of $527.18.

Humana (NYSE:HUM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The insurance provider reported $4.16 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.48 by $0.68. The company had revenue of $29.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.66 billion. Humana had a return on equity of 13.20% and a net margin of 1.18%. Analysts forecast that Humana will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Humana Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Humana’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.36%.

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.