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

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Humana (HUM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $424.29, moving -0.19% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.85%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.14%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 5.61%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the health insurer had lost 6.58% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's loss of 1.55% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.18% in that time.

Humana will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be August 2, 2023. In that report, analysts expect Humana to post earnings of $8.87 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 2.31%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $25.82 billion, up 9.12% from the year-ago period.

HUM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $28.29 per share and revenue of $102.16 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +12.08% and +10%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Humana. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.08% higher within the past month. Humana is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, Humana is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.02. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 15.79, so we one might conclude that Humana is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that HUM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.11. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Medical - HMOs industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.1 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 81, putting it in the top 33% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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