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Aetna (AET) Tops Q1 Earnings; Revenues Miss, Down Y/Y

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Aetna Inc. is one of the nation's leading diversified healthcare benefits companies. The company, with its strong business, a diversified revenue stream should benefit in this changing environment.

Aetna’s proposed acquisition of Humana Inc. (HUM - Free Report) was recently blocked by the regulators.. Notwithstanding the latest hit to the merger, Aetna is planning to appeal the case. It also has some back up plans. It may look to expand in Medicaid, by way of acquiring Medicaid-centric companies.

Aetna has a pretty good earnings track record with the company delivering positive earnings surprises in each of the last four quarters with an average surprise of 8.61%.

Currently, Aetna has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but that could definitely change following the company’s earnings report which was just released. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here

We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

The Bottom Line: Aetna beats on earnings. Our consensus called for EPS of $2.36 and the company reported earnings per share of $2.71 and increased 17% year over year.

The Top Line: Total Revenues missed expectations. Aetna posted operating revenues of $15.2 billion, where as our consensus estimate of $15.47 billion. Revenues also declined 3.2% year over year due to lower premiums in Aetna's Health Care segment.

Aetna Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
 

Key Stats: Adjusted operating expense ratio was 16% down 200 basis points year over year.

Medical membership totaled 22.4 million at Mar 31, 2017, down 2.4% year over year.

2017 Guidance

The company expects 2017 operating earnings to be within the range of $8.80 to $9.00.  

Check back later for our full write up on this AET earnings report later!

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