Dive Brief:
- Humana had a rough fourth quarter for '13, posting a loss of $30 million. That's an almost 116% drop from $192 million in profit in the same quarter last year.
- The health insurer reported total revenue of about $10.2 billion for the three months ending Dec. 31, up 6.6% from last year's $9.6 billion.
- However, the insurer's operating expenses also went up by 10.3% year-over-year to $10.2 billion.
Dive Insight:
These may be bad news numbers, but apparently they were expected, or the Street might have punished Humana by dumping the stock. Instead, HUM continues to trade near the top of its 52-week range. And generally speaking, the big insurance companies are trading at respectable levels as well. It seems that investors have confidence in this sector.