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Aetna Inc. (AET – Analyst Report), is one of the largest commercial health and benefits insurers providing health insurance and related products.

The company is diligently working towards its proposed acquisition of one of the largest names in the managed care space, Humana Inc. The buyout will help Aetna to climb up the ranks in the industry.

The company has a diversified revenue stream that helped it survive challenging industry environment.

Also over the years, Aetna has positioned itself well to accommodate in the changing industry by investing in information technology both by growing organically and making acquisitions.

Aetna also has an impressive earnings track record. The company delivered positive earnings surprises in three of the last four quarters with an average surprise of 10.02%.

Currently, Aetna has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but that could definitely change following the company’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

The Bottom Line: Aetna reported better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings. The company’s operating earnings of $1.37 per share was way ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.21. Also, earnings were up 12% year over year.

The Top Line: Revenues were ahead of our revenue expectations. Aetna posted revenues of $15.1 billion, compared with our consensus estimate of $14.94 billion. Revenue was up 2% on a year over year basis.

Key Stats: Medical membership was 23.5 million as of Dec 31, 2015. This represents a 0.3% year-over-year decline.

Total expenses were $3.2 billion up 4.2% year over year.

The operating expense ratio was 20.5% up from 19.7% in the year ago quarter.

Fourth quarter pretax operating margin was 6%, up 50 basis points year over year.

Guidance: Aetna guided for earnings per share of “at least $7.75” for 2016.

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