Humana Outlook Raises Share Price After Earnings

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 results before markets opened Wednesday. For the quarter, the health care company posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.45 on revenues of $13.36 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $1.09 on revenues of $12.33 billion. Fourth-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $1.45 and $13.51 billion in revenues.

For the full year, Humana reported EPS of $7.75 and revenues of $54.29 billion, compared with 2014 EPS of $7.51 and revenues of $48.5 billion. Analysts were looking for EPS of $7.74 and revenues of $54.43 billion.

The company said that year-over-year performance reflected higher operating results from its group and health care services segments and higher investment income associated with the repositioning of the investment portfolio during the fiscal, partially offset by lower operating results in the retail segment.

Humana provided adjusted 2016 EPS guidance of $8.85, compared with the analysts’ consensus of $8.73. The 2016 forecast includes an increase of $1.18 per share in the company’s Medicare Advantage individual program and $0.99 in individual commercial plans. Group Medicare Advantage programs are expected to come in $0.61 below the 2015 total and investment income is forecast to drop by $0.43 per share.

The company suspended its share buyback program in July when it announced its proposed merger with Aetna. Humana expects to close the transaction in the second half of 2016.
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Humana’s chief financial officer said:

Humana faced challenges across a number of fronts in 2015. However, the strength of our clinical model together with strong administrative cost discipline helped us not only manage these challenges in 2015, but together with targeted pricing and other operational actions, helped position us for meaningful margin improvement in our core individual Medicare Advantage business for 2016 as well as attractive growth in both revenues and EPS in 2017 and beyond.

Humana’s shares closed at $159.53 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $150.92 to $219.79. Shares traded up about 2.4% Wednesday morning at $163.43. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of $204.69 before the earnings report.