Centene Q4 Profit Surges; Lifts FY14 Premium And Service Revenues View

(RTTNews) - Centene Corp. (CNC) reported that its fourth-quarter net earnings attributable to the company significantly increased to $53.24 million or $0.93 per share, from $9.06 million or $0.17 per share in the same quarter last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.83 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Earnings from continuing operations, net of income tax expense, were $49.61 million, up from $14.26 million last year.

Quarterly Premium and Service Revenues increased 31% to $2.9 billion from $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012. The increase was primarily driven as a result of the addition of the Kansas, California and New Hampshire contracts, increased premium rates in Texas, expansions in Mississippi, Ohio and Florida, the acquisition of AcariaHealth and the commencement of the correctional health care contracts in Massachusetts and Tennessee.

The company noted that its subsidiary, Kentucky Spirit Health Plan or KSHP, ceased serving Medicaid members in Kentucky as of July 6, 2013 Accordingly, the results of operations for KSHP were classified as discontinued operations.

Michael Neidorff, Centene's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We are pleased with the strong financial performance and development of our organization and business in 2013. This sets the stage for continued positive momentum in 2014 and beyond."

Total revenues for the quarter were $2.93 billion, up from $2.27 billion in the year ago quarter.

Looking ahead for 2014, the company still expects earnings per share to be in the range of $3.50 to $3.80.

The company now expects premium and Service Revenues for 2014 to be in the range of $13.80 billion - $14.30 billion. The company said in December that it expected Premium and service revenues to be $13.5 billion to $14.0 billion for 2014. Street currently is looking for fiscal year 2014 earnings of $3.61per share on annual revenues of $13.93 billion.

The guidance includes the impact of the acquisition of U.S. Medical Management and related transaction costs as well as the ACA health insurer fee.