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Humana (HUM) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Humana (HUM - Free Report) closed at $495.76, marking a -0.08% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.76% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.05%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.98%.

Heading into today, shares of the health insurer had lost 3.34% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 4.24% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.91% in that time.

Humana will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Humana to post earnings of $9.36 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 16.42%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $26.56 billion, up 10.8% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $28.06 per share and revenue of $103.92 billion, which would represent changes of +11.17% and +11.9%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Humana should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.35% higher within the past month. Humana is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Humana currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.68. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 13.86, so we one might conclude that Humana is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that HUM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.24. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Medical - HMOs stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.87 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 110, putting it in the top 44% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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