Beech Hill Advisors Inc. Invests $207,000 in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM)

Beech Hill Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 815 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of HUM. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Humana by 7.0% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 111,289 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $41,583,000 after purchasing an additional 7,324 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in Humana by 21.8% during the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 37,495 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $14,010,000 after buying an additional 6,700 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Humana by 1.5% during the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 19,322 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,220,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in Humana by 30.6% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 8,630 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,224,000 after acquiring an additional 2,021 shares during the period. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Humana by 6.3% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 2,502 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $935,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on HUM shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Humana from $288.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Humana from $400.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Humana in a research report on Friday, October 11th. They set a “sector weight” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Humana from $387.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Humana from $250.00 to $253.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $302.70.

Humana Stock Performance

HUM stock traded down $4.38 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $275.11. The stock had a trading volume of 110,594 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,185,166. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $274.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $309.10. Humana Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $213.31 and a fifty-two week high of $455.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.13 billion, a PE ratio of 24.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 1.76 and a quick ratio of 1.76.

Humana (NYSE:HUM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The insurance provider reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.68. The business had revenue of $29.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.66 billion. Humana had a net margin of 1.18% and a return on equity of 13.20%. Analysts predict that Humana Inc. will post 16.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Humana Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.885 per share. This represents a $3.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Humana’s payout ratio is presently 31.36%.

Insider Activity at Humana

In other Humana news, insider Timothy S. Huval sold 3,703 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.26, for a total value of $948,930.78. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,181 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Humana

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.