Dive Brief:
- Aetna's third-quarter net income grew almost 4 percent over the same quarter last year, up to $518.6 million versus $499.2 million in 2012.
- Aetna third quarter revenue was about $13 billion, up 46 percent year-over-year, boosted by the health insurer's buyout of Coventry Health Care.
- For the nine months ended September 30, Aetna reported net income of about $1.54 billion, up 5.2 percent from the $1.47 billion in the first nine months of 2012.
Dive Insight:
Aetna didn't perform quite as analysts hoped. While net income for Q3 and nine months was up substantially, fueled by success in commercial and Medicaid markets, earnings per share came in below analyst estimates. EPS was $1.50 per share, down 3 cents per share from Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.53 per share.) And pre-tax operating margin was 7.9 percent for Q3 '13, down 230 basis points year-over-year. Still, Zacks sees Aetna in a positive light overall -- in fact, the agency still ranks it as a "buy." From this point a flood of new beneficiaries via health reform can only make things better.