Great Lakes Retirement Inc. Buys New Position in Maximus, Inc. (NYSE:MMS)

Great Lakes Retirement Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Maximus, Inc. (NYSE:MMS) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 6,565 shares of the health services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $551,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Maximus by 6.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,588,189 shares of the health services provider’s stock worth $641,366,000 after purchasing an additional 514,698 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Maximus by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,152,379 shares of the health services provider’s stock worth $562,892,000 after buying an additional 24,392 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in Maximus by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,807,556 shares of the health services provider’s stock valued at $205,878,000 after acquiring an additional 74,877 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Maximus by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,742,588 shares of the health services provider’s stock worth $201,114,000 after purchasing an additional 123,624 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Maximus by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,587,930 shares of the health services provider’s stock worth $161,772,000 after purchasing an additional 57,997 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Maximus news, CFO David Mutryn sold 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.95, for a total value of $671,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 5,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $430,159.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Maximus Stock Performance

Shares of MMS traded up $0.54 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $84.03. The stock had a trading volume of 213,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 359,261. The firm has a market cap of $5.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.97 and a beta of 0.73. Maximus, Inc. has a 52 week low of $72.39 and a 52 week high of $89.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.69 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $82.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $80.67.

Maximus (NYSE:MMS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The health services provider reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. Maximus had a net margin of 3.73% and a return on equity of 15.68%. Maximus’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Maximus, Inc. will post 5.41 EPS for the current year.

Maximus Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 15th were paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 14th. Maximus’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on MMS shares. Raymond James lowered shares of Maximus from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. StockNews.com raised Maximus from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded Maximus from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Monday, December 4th.

Maximus Profile

Maximus, Inc operates as a provider of government services in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: U.S. Federal Services, U.S. Services, and Outside the U.S. The U.S. Services segment offers program eligibility support and enrollment; centralized multilingual customer contact centers, multichannel, and digital self-service options for enrollment; application assistance and independent health plan choice counseling; beneficiary outreach, education, eligibility, enrollment, and redeterminations; and person-centered independent disability, long-term sick, and other health assessments.