Avestar Capital LLC Has $435,000 Position in Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM)

Avestar Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) by 34.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,372 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 354 shares during the quarter. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Humana were worth $435,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of HUM. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 187,903 shares during the period. Davis Selected Advisers raised its position in shares of Humana by 16.1% in the second quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 2,311,362 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $863,640,000 after buying an additional 321,233 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in shares of Humana by 118.9% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,425,302 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $532,564,000 after buying an additional 774,085 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Humana by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,183,985 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $442,396,000 after acquiring an additional 24,842 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on HUM. 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. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Humana from $400.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Humana from $332.00 to $396.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Humana from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $308.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Humana from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $519.00 to $253.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Twenty research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $315.86.

Humana Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of HUM stock opened at $296.83 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $275.91 and a 200-day moving average of $330.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.76, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market cap of $35.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.29, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.52. Humana Inc. has a 1-year low of $213.31 and a 1-year high of $526.47.

Humana (NYSE:HUM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The insurance provider reported $4.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.68. The firm had revenue of $29.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.66 billion. Humana had a net margin of 1.18% and a return on equity of 13.20%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Humana Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Humana Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.885 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $3.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. Humana’s payout ratio is currently 31.36%.

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.