LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) � Shares of Amerigroup Corp. and eHealth Inc. climbed Friday after the two health insurers reported earnings and eHealth was rewarded with a stock upgrade.
Amerigroup AGP �tacked on more than 5% at one point after the company said fourth-quarter net income was $32.8 million, or 67 cents a share, compared with $79.6 million, or $1.59 a share, for the same period a year ago.
Revenue for the Virginia Beach, Va.-based company was $1.65 billion against the $1.5 billion from last year.
Analysts polled by FactSet Research had expected the company to earn 62 cents a share, a nickel below where income ended up, and that helped boost shares in early trading.
Click to Play Markets climb; Dow near 4-year highStocks rose in tandem with optimism for a second bailout for Greece, extending gains for a second session. (Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
But the company gave back much of those gains once investors started reading between the lines, as the company indicated that net margin of roughly 1.5% to 2.5% will be less than the long-term range of 2.5% to 3.5%. Shares were up 2% to $71.57 at the close.
�Amerigroup�s initial 2012 guidance parameters are generally in-line with our expectations, but appear to compare poorly to the Street,� analyst Chris Rigg of Susquehanna Financial Group said in a note to clients.
Amerigroup also said that its medical-loss ratio, or the percentage of revenue it spends on treating patients would be 85.8% to 87.3%, up from the 84.7% it reported for the fourth quarter. The company said in a press release that it expects lower premium rates will be received from states and that it sees higher medical-loss ratios for new business going forward.
Meanwhile, eHealth�s EHTH �results � reported late Thursday � were in line with forecasts but the company got a boost from a ratings upgrade and a higher-than-expected forecast for 2012.
/quotes/zigman/100739/quotes/nls/ehth EHTH 17.88, -0.02, -0.11%
EHealth shares rose nearly 5% to $16.85.
George Sutton of Craig-Hallum Capital Group upgraded his rating to buy from hold and raised his price target for the online insurer to $20 from $15.
�Despite some recent strength, this is a stock that has been mired in no man�s land for the past two years around the current mid-teens level. We see that reality beginning to change,� Sutton said in a note to clients.
EHealth said on Thursday that net income was $2.26 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with $8.61 million, or 38 cents a share, for the same period a year ago. Revenue for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company was $43.1 million against $50.7 million from last year. The FactSet estimate called for the company to earn 11 cents during the quarter.
But eHealth also said it expects full-year adjusted earnings of 56 cents to 66 cents a share for 2012. Further, the company now is expecting sales of $150 million to $156 million. The FactSet estimate had called for earnings of 35 cents a share and sales of $148 million.
Finally, Life Technologies Corp. LIFE �lost nearly 8% to $45.92 after a rival of the genome sequencing specialist said it developed hand-held devices the size of a USB memory stick that could conduct genome sequencing.
The devices from U.K.-based Oxford Nanopore are called GridION and MinION and are expected to be available to customers sometime this year.
The news also took a bite out of Illumina Inc. ILMN �shares, which fell nearly 4% to $51.82.
No comments :
Post a Comment