WellCare Health's (WCG) Q1 Earnings, Revenues Beat Estimates

WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE:WCG) reported first-quarter 2017 adjusted operating earnings of $1.61 per share that surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 35.3%. Earnings also surged 52% year over year, primarily due to continued operational execution as evidenced by strong results across all business lines.

Adjusted total premium revenue of $3.95 billion increased 13.5% year over year due to strong organic growth across all three lines of business and the company's acquisition of Care1st Arizona. Revenues also topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2%.

Adjusted SG&A expenses increased 18% year over year to $298.2 million, primarily due to investments in staffing and infrastructure to support the growth, Care1st Arizona buyout and entry into the Nebraska Medicaid market. Adjusted SG&A expense ratio deteriorated 30 basis points (bps) from the year-ago quarter to 7.6%.

Quarterly Segment Update

Medicaid Health Plans:

The segment’s membership increased 10.3% over the last-year quarter to 2.6 million. The membership increase was primarily driven by the company's acquisition of Care1st Arizona and the launch of the company's Nebraska Medicaid business on Jan 1, 2017.

Adjusted Medicaid Health Plans premium revenues were $2.6 billion, up 14.7% year over year, primarily due to membership growth

Adjusted Medicaid Health Plans’ Medical Benefit Ratio (MBR) was 90.5%, up 60 bps from the last-year quarter.

Medicare Health Plans Segment Results:

Medicare Health Plans membership jumped 9.2% year over year to 0.356 million due to the company's 2017 bid positioning and execution of sales and retention initiatives.

Medicare Health Plans premium revenues increased 12.4% on a year-over-year basis to $1.1 billion. This was primarily due to the year-over-year membership decline as a result of the company's 2016 bid strategy.

The segment’s MBR was 83%, down 160 bps year over year. This was due to continued operational execution as well as the company's 2017 bid strategy.

Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDP) Segment Results

Medicare PDP membership was 1.1 million, up 7.2% year over year, primarily due to the company's 2017 bid positioning.

Medicare PDP premium revenues were $268.1 million, up 7.2% from the first quarter of 2016. This was mainly due to the segment’s membership growth.

The Medicare PDP segment’s MBR was 96.9%, up 260 bps from the prior-year quarter. This was due to improved operational execution and the company's 2017 bid positioning.

Financial Update

Net cash provided by operating activities was $394.5 million compared with net cash used by operating activities of $111.4 million in the prior-year quarter. The improvement was primarily driven by the timing of Medicare-related receipts in the first quarter.

As of Mar 31, 2017, unregulated cash and investments of $1.9 billion soared 107.6% from $915.3 million as of Dec 31, 2016,

As of Dec 31, 2016, days in claims payable was 46.2 days compared with 50.7 days as of Dec 31, 2016.

Guidance for 2017

The company expects adjusted earnings per diluted share in the range of $6.55–$6.80 as against previous guidance of $6.00–$6.25.

Total adjusted premium revenues are expected in the band of $16.45–$16.85 billion compared with the previous guidance of $15.12–$15.80 billion.

Investment & other income is anticipated to be $40–$45 million compared with the previous guidance of $18–$21 million.

Adjusted SG&A ratio is expected between 7.95% and 8.20% as against the previous guided range of 7.7% and 7.9%,

Zacks Rank and Performance of Other Insurers

WellCare presently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Among the other firms in the medical sector that have reported first-quarter earnings so far, the bottom line at Centene Corp. (NYSE:CNC) , Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) beat their respective Zacks Consensus Estimate.

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