Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Increases Stake in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its position in shares of Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) by 0.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,316 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 62 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Humana were worth $2,617,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Humana by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,357,420 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,701,582,000 after purchasing an additional 53,272 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Humana by 23.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,388,859 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $1,073,387,000 after buying an additional 643,291 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Humana by 8.1% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 2,506,250 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $793,830,000 after buying an additional 187,903 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lifted its holdings in Humana by 6.5% during the third quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 1,173,535 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $371,705,000 after buying an additional 71,910 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Humana by 1.0% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 1,168,341 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $370,060,000 after buying an additional 11,923 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Humana

In other news, insider Timothy S. Huval sold 3,703 shares of the firm’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 sale, the insider now owns 8,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,096,463.06. This trade represents a 31.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Humana Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of HUM stock opened at $261.49 on Friday. Humana Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $213.31 and a fifty-two week high of $406.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 1.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.55 billion, a PE ratio of 26.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $270.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $287.87.

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

Humana Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.885 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $3.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Humana’s payout ratio is 35.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HUM. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Humana from $387.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America raised Humana from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $247.00 to $308.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Humana from $255.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $283.00 price objective on shares of Humana in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Humana from $257.00 to $256.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Humana has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $285.68.

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.