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

In the latest trading session, Humana (HUM) closed at $486.36, marking a +0.97% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.66%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.61%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.02%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the health insurer had lost 0.89% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Medical sector's loss of 4.7% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.79% in that time.

Humana will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $6.19, up 28.16% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $22.68 billion, up 9.6% from the year-ago period.

HUM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $24.85 per share and revenue of $92.91 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +20.4% and +11.85%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Humana should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 remained stagnant 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 19.39. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.39, so we one might conclude that Humana is trading at a no noticeable deviation comparatively.

It is also worth noting that HUM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.45. 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 1.17 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 163, putting it in the bottom 36% 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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