WellCare Braces For Stock Crash (WCG)

WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE:WCG) has on its website an audio transmission from its Chairman and CEO Todd Farha from Tampa headquarters.  Yesterday 24/7 Wall St. noted about how this was going to be painful for shareholders, and unfortunately there are still more questions than there are answers.  Farha gave just over a 2 minute audio update and some paraphrased comments are as follows:

• "Wednesday morning officers from state and federal agencies showed with search warrants for documents and files." 
• "we are cooperating and intend to cooperate"
• "Essential services are operational and uninterrupted" 
• "While some employees went home…Majority of associates remained on site while some went home to facilitate investigators access"
• "Investigation having no impact on delivery of healthcare services"
• "We continue to pay claims timely"
• "We continue to answer customer calls"
• "We expect stock trading will resume and November 5 conference call will proceed as scheduled"
• "we cannot share additional details yet and will when appropriate"
• "We remain committed to our mission"

Some indications early on for WCG shares put the stock between $59+ to $71+ versus the $115.17 halt price yesterday.  Unfortunately, there is not really any word or hint out of the company what the full scope of the raid was about.  Obviously the verdict from traders and shareholders is going to be a cruel one, but this is still going to be considered a pending issue.

Jon C. Ogg
October 25. 2007