Smartleaf Asset Management LLC Decreases Stake in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM)

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) by 33.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 751 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 382 shares during the quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Humana were worth $191,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of HUM. FMR LLC grew its stake in Humana by 23.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,388,859 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,073,387,000 after acquiring an additional 643,291 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in shares of Humana by 55.6% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 600,317 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $190,145,000 after purchasing an additional 214,535 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in shares of Humana by 735.9% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 219,002 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $55,563,000 after purchasing an additional 192,801 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Humana by 8.1% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Humana during the third quarter worth approximately $50,102,000. 92.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HUM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $283.00 target price on shares of Humana in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Humana in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Humana from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $247.00 to $308.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Humana from $255.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Humana from $257.00 to $256.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $285.68.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Humana news, insider Timothy S. Huval sold 3,703 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.26, for a total transaction of $948,930.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,181 shares in the company, valued at $2,096,463.06. The trade was a 31.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Humana Price Performance

Shares of HUM opened at $262.10 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $31.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.34, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.57. Humana Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $213.31 and a fifty-two week high of $406.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $271.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $284.92.

Humana (NYSE:HUM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The insurance provider reported ($2.16) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.26) by $0.10. Humana had a return on equity of 11.70% and a net margin of 1.02%. On average, research analysts forecast that Humana Inc. will post 16.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Humana Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.885 dividend. This represents a $3.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Humana’s payout ratio is presently 35.58%.

Humana 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.