SphinxRisk

Humana Inc

HUM · Health care (hospital & medical service plans) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31

Humana Inc reported revenue of $129.7 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 10.1% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin narrowed from 3.2% in 2016 to 2.1%, and it earned 7.4% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $33.8 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 36.0% went to buybacks and 23.6% back into the business; the share count fell 19.9%. On the accounting screens, it passes 5 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 5.10 is in the safe zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; 1 of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.

Revenue, fiscal 2025 129.7B +10.1% a year over 9 years
Operating margin 2.1% gross margin —
Return on invested capital 7.4% 9.1% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow after stock pay 134.0M 0.1% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA 2.4× net debt 8.2B
Piotroski F-score 5/8 tests of improvement passed

Is it growing?

Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.

RevenueOperating income
Compound growth a year
3 yrs5 yrs9 yrs
Revenue+11.8%+10.9%+10.1%
Operating income-10.7%-11.5%+5.0%
Net income-24.9%-18.8%+7.6%
Earnings per share-23.6%-17.2%+10.3%
Free cash flow per share-51.5%-38.5%-11.5%
Dividend per share+66.5%+7.9%+13.1%
Shares-1.7%-1.9%-2.4%

Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.

Does it earn more than its capital costs?

Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.

GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow

Return on invested capital

Return on invested capital Cost of capital today · 7.7%

Economic profit

Economic profit

(return on capital − cost of capital) × capital invested: the profit left after paying for the money used. Today's cost of capital is applied to every year, since a past one cannot be rebuilt honestly.

Return on equity
6.7%
Return on assets
2.4%
Asset turnover
2.65×
Overheads (SG&A)
11.9% of revenue

Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?

Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.

Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay

Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025

33.8B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.

  • Reinvested in the business 24% 8.0B
  • Acquisitions 18% 6.0B
  • Dividends 8% 2.8B
  • Share buybacks 36% 12.2B
  • Kept, or used to pay down debt 14% 4.9B

Over the same years it paid 1.8B in stock. The share count fell 19.9%. 10.4B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.

Per share

Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share

Shares outstanding

Diluted shares

How strong is the balance sheet?

Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.

Net debt
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
2.4×
Interest coverage
4× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
2.00 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 9d

Three classic screens of the accounts

Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.

Piotroski F-score

Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.

5of 8 tests passed
  • ProfitableReturn on assets above zero passed
  • Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zero passed
  • Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year before failed
  • Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals) failed
  • Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell failed
  • More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before passed
  • No new sharesShare count did not grow passed
  • Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reported no data
  • Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year before passed

Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.

Altman Z''-score

Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?

5.10safe zone
  • Working capital ÷ assets 0.34 × 6.56+2.20
  • Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.59 × 3.26+1.94
  • Operating income ÷ assets 0.06 × 6.72+0.37
  • Equity ÷ liabilities 0.57 × 1.05+0.59

Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.

Beneish M-score

Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?

-2.29below the -1.78 line
  • Receivables vs sales 1.10+1.01
  • Gross margin slipping 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.53
  • Soft assets 0.94+0.38
  • Sales growth 1.10+0.98
  • Slower depreciation 1.04+0.12
  • Overheads vs sales 1.02-0.18
  • Profit not in cash 0.01+0.03
  • Leverage rising 0.97-0.32

Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.

Where the statements disagree

Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.

Reported profit comfortably exceeds the cash generated (1,188M against 921M).

Benign

Growth consuming working capital, or the seasonality of the year-end.

Worrying

Profit held up by accounting entries that do not turn into money.

What is it worth, under which assumptions?

A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.

Revenue
M $

revenue of fiscal 2025

%

revenue grew +10.9% a year over the last 5 years; it fades to the terminal rate by the last year

yrs

ten years for growth to fade to the terminal rate

Cash from each sale
%

free cash flow to the firm after stock-based pay ÷ revenue, last 3 fiscal years together

%

the margin in year ten; by default the business keeps today's

The long run
%

growth forever after year ten, below the risk-free rate: no company outgrows the economy forever

The discount rate
%

10-year US Treasury yield (FRED, DGS10), 2026-09-24

not measured on this public page, which uses only public filings: 1.0 assumes it moves like the market. Sign in to measure it from prices

%

the extra return demanded for holding shares; it cannot be measured, and 4–6% is the common range

%

interest expense ÷ debt = 5.1%, kept between the risk-free rate and +8 points

%

effective rate in the last fiscal year, 17.4%, kept within 0–35%

The price
$

Type the price you see at your broker. It is used only for the reverse questions: what that price implies.

Back to the defaults

SEC from the filings Treasury the 10-year yield measured from prices assumption cannot be measured yours you changed it

Value per share, with these assumptions $366.30 discounted at 7.7% a year · 63% of it from after year 10
$-268.4180% of 5,000 simulations$1,100.60
Cautious $187.16 7.0% growth · 1.2% margin · 8.7% discount · 2.0% forever
Your assumptions $366.30 11.0% growth · 1.4% margin · 7.7% discount · 2.5% forever
Generous $741.53 15.0% growth · 1.7% margin · 6.7% discount · 3.0% forever

Type a share price on the left to ask the reverse questions: what growth, what margin or what discount rate that price implies.

What the value implies, in the usual multiples

At this model's value
Price ÷ earnings37.3×
Enterprise value ÷ EBITDA15.4×
Enterprise value ÷ revenue0.4×
Free cash flow yield0.3%

From cash flows to a value per share

10 years of cash flow, today19.2B
Everything after, today33.3B
The whole business52.4B
Minus net debt-8.2B
What belongs to shareholders44.3B

Divided among 120.8M shares: <strong>$366.30</strong> each.

The projection next to its history

Reported free cash flow after stock pay, then the model's. A projection that looks nothing like the past needs a reason.

ReportedProjected
Year by year
2026202720282029203020312032203320342035
Revenue143.9B158.4B172.8B186.9B200.4B213.0B224.4B234.2B242.3B248.4B
Growth11.0%10.1%9.1%8.2%7.2%6.3%5.3%4.4%3.4%2.5%
Cash margin1.4%1.4%1.4%1.4%1.4%1.4%1.4%1.4%1.4%1.4%
Free cash flow2.1B2.3B2.5B2.7B2.9B3.1B3.2B3.4B3.5B3.6B
Worth today1.9B2.0B2.0B2.0B2.0B2.0B1.9B1.9B1.8B1.7B

If the least-known inputs move

Value per share as two inputs change at a time. Neighbouring cells that differ a lot are the conclusion: the value depends on numbers nobody knows to a point.

The discount rate and growth forever

discount ↓ · forever →1.5%2.0%2.5%3.0%3.5%
6.8% 382 422 472 536 619
7.2% 341 374 414 463 525
7.7% 307 334 366 405 454
8.2% 278 300 327 359 397
8.8% 252 272 294 320 352

Year-one growth and the final margin

margin ↓ · growth →7.0%9.0%11.0%13.0%15.0%
1.2% 240 266 295 325 358
1.3% 269 298 330 364 400
1.4% 300 332 366 404 444
1.6% 329 364 402 443 486
1.7% 361 399 439 483 531

All the inputs moving at once

5,000 valuations, each with growth, final margin, discount rate and growth forever drawn at random around the values on the left (spreads of 3.0%, 2.0%, 1.0% and 0.5%). Not a probability — the spreads are assumptions too — but an honest picture of how wide the answer is.

Half of the simulations land between <b>$40.55</b> and <b>$727.91</b>; one in ten below $-268.41, one in ten above $1,100.60.

Does the long run make sense?

  • 10.8×The terminal value prices the business in year 10 at 10.8 times that year's EBITDA.
  • 16%To grow 2.5% forever while reinvesting 16% of its after-tax operating profit, the business must earn 16% on the new capital — it has earned 9% on average over the last five years.
  • 63%of the value comes from after year 10. The more of it, the more the answer depends on the part nobody can see.
The discount rate, taken apart
  1. What shareholders demand (CAPM): 5.18% risk-free + 1.00 beta × 5.0% premium = <strong>10.18%</strong>.
  2. What lenders charge, after the tax saving on interest: 5.18% × (1 − 17.4%) = <strong>4.28%</strong>.
  3. Weighted by how much of each the company uses (book value (no price given)): <strong>7.75%</strong>, the rate every future cash flow is discounted at.

What it has filed lately

The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.

Companies like this one

Same SEC industry (hospital & medical service plans) first, then the rest of health care.

Every figure, year by year

10 fiscal years · 30 measures
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Size
Revenue54.4B53.8B56.9B64.9B77.2B83.1B92.9B106.4B117.8B129.7B
Revenue growth—-1.1%+5.8%+14.0%+18.9%+7.7%+11.8%+14.5%+10.7%+10.1%
Operating income1.7B4.3B3.1B3.2B5.0B3.1B3.8B4.0B2.6B2.7B
Net income614.0M2.4B1.7B2.7B3.4B2.9B2.8B2.5B1.2B1.2B
Margins
Gross margin——————————
Operating margin3.2%7.9%5.4%4.9%6.5%3.8%4.1%3.8%2.2%2.1%
Net margin1.1%4.6%3.0%4.2%4.4%3.5%3.0%2.3%1.0%0.9%
Free cash flow margin2.6%6.6%2.7%7.0%6.1%1.1%3.7%2.8%2.0%0.3%
R&D ÷ revenue——————————
SG&A ÷ revenue13.2%12.2%13.2%11.4%13.0%12.2%13.6%12.4%11.6%11.9%
Cash
Free cash flow1.4B3.5B1.6B4.5B4.7B920.0M3.5B3.0B2.4B375.0M
Stock-based pay115.0M157.0M137.0M163.0M181.0M180.0M216.0M175.0M207.0M241.0M
Free cash flow after stock pay1.3B3.4B1.4B4.4B4.5B740.0M3.2B2.8B2.2B134.0M
Free cash flow to the firm549.8M2.9B2.2B2.2B3.1B1.3B2.7B2.4B1.5B1.8B
Free cash flow ÷ net income2.3×1.4×0.9×1.7×1.4×0.3×1.2×1.2×2.0×0.3×
Capex ÷ revenue1.0%1.0%1.1%1.1%1.2%1.6%1.2%0.9%0.5%0.4%
Returns
Return on invested capital4.7%17.6%15.5%14.1%17.6%9.5%11.3%10.8%6.8%7.4%
Return on equity5.7%24.9%16.6%22.5%24.5%18.2%18.3%15.3%7.4%6.7%
Return on assets2.4%9.0%6.6%9.3%9.6%6.6%6.5%5.3%2.6%2.4%
Asset turnover2.1×2.0×2.2×2.2×2.2×1.9×2.2×2.3×2.5×2.7×
Economic profit-456.3M1.5B1.3B1.1B2.0B487.2M938.9M840.6M-268.4M-92.9M
Per share
Earnings per share$4.07$16.81$12.16$20.09$25.31$22.67$22.08$20.00$9.99$9.83
Free cash flow per share$9.34$24.23$11.28$33.76$35.15$7.11$27.15$23.92$19.78$3.10
Dividend per share$1.17$1.51$1.91$2.16$2.43$0.70$0.77$3.46$3.57$3.56
Payout ratio28.8%9.0%15.7%10.7%9.6%3.1%3.5%17.3%35.7%36.2%
Book value per share$70.80$67.60$73.42$89.34$103.21$124.27$120.47$130.68$135.48$146.14
Diluted shares150.9M145.6M138.4M134.7M133.0M129.4M127.1M124.4M120.9M120.8M
Balance sheet
Net debt215.0M878.0M3.7B1.6B2.0B9.1B6.1B7.0B9.5B8.2B
Net debt ÷ EBITDA0.1×0.2×1.1×0.4×0.4×2.4×1.3×1.5×2.8×2.4×
Interest coverage9.2×17.6×14.2×13.2×17.6×9.7×9.5×8.1×3.9×4.3×
Current ratio2.1×1.9×1.7×1.8×1.8×1.6×1.5×1.6×1.8×2.0×
Cash conversion cycle (days)——————————
Scores
Piotroski F-score—567536665
Altman Z''4.865.225.235.465.474.194.484.584.755.10
Beneish M—-3.10-2.50-2.84-2.71-1.71-2.83-2.47-2.37-2.29

Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.