EHealth (EHTH) To Report Q2 Earnings: What's In The Cards?

eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:EHTH) is slated to report second-quarter 2019 results on Jul 25, after market close. The company delivered positive earnings surprise in two of the last four quarters.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

eHealth’s second-quarter results are likely to benefit from solid performance of its Medicare business driven by continued investment in marketing initiatives, expansion of telesales capacity and enhancement of technology platform and online sales capability.

Online enrollments in Medicare plan will likely boost the scalability of Medicare platform.

All three categories of the Medicare business — Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement and Prescription Drug Plan — are likely to witness higher enrollments and drive Medicare revenues.

Improved retention rate provided additional support.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues is pegged at $37.2 million, indicating 13.8% increase year over year.

The company expects second-quarter 2019 results to benefit from higher full-time Asian headcount.

General and administrative expenses as well as tech and content expenses are likely to increase in the to-be-reported quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter earnings is pegged at 41 cents, implying a decline of 2.5% year over year.

What Our Quantitative Model Says

Our proven model does not conclusively show that eHealth is likely to beat estimates this reporting cycle. This is because a stock needs to have the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). But this is not the case as you can see below.

Earnings ESP: eHealth has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at a loss of 41 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

eHealth, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Zacks Rank: eHealth has a Zacks Rank #2, which increases the predictive power of ESP. However, we need to have a positive ESP to be confident about an earnings surprise.

We caution against Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some stocks from the insurance industry with the perfect mix of elements to surpass estimates this time around.

Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) is set to report second-quarter earnings on Jul 30 and has an Earnings ESP of +0.63%. The company has a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) has an Earnings ESP of +0.52% and a Zacks Rank of 3. The company is set to release second-quarter earnings on Jul 31.

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:HIG) has an Earnings ESP of +0.63% and a Zacks Rank #3. The company is slated to announce second-quarter earnings on Aug 1.

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