W L P Inc

WellPoint Spends More on Care as Medicare Members Rise in Second Quarter

WellPoint Inc. (WLP), the largest health insurer by enrollment, said the cost to provide medical care jumped in the second quarter as the number of Medicare patients it serves has grown. The shares fell the most in almost a year.

WellPoint raised its annual forecast for the second time this year after the sale and increasing enrollment, according to a statement made today by the company to Indianapolis. At the same time, an influx of patients aged 65 or more members pushed the percent of income spent on care for 85.7 percent of 82.9 percent a year earlier, the company said.

Registration rose 2.1 percent to 34.2 million, and most new clients were beneficiaries of Medicare, the health plan of the United States for the elderly and disabled. Three quarters of this group had been rivals with plans that have left the Northern California market, CFO Wayne DeVeydt said. Enrollees were sicker than the company had planned or price, he said.

"We do not see this problem in the rest of" the senior population ensures WellPoint, DeVeydt said in a telephone interview. "We believe it can be fixed next year."

The share fell $ 4.86, or 6.6 percent, to $ 68.70 at 16:15 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It was the biggest intraday decline since Aug. 11, 2010, when Democrats in Congress called for new rules requiring that plans spend more of their premiums on medical care. The stock increased 21 percent since the beginning of the year.

WellPoint is reviewing its quarterly data on spending with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Baltimore, DeVeydt said, so that “we can resolve” the pricing for next year. The company will continue to pay out a higher portion of its income to care for these patients through the rest of the year, he said.

“Even with that hit, we exceeded earnings estimates” because the industry is benefitting from lower demand for health services , DeVeydt said. Americans have been unnerved by rising unemployment and continue to defer medical treatment, a trend that has plagued hospital operators like HCA Corp., which reported lower earnings July 25.

Typically this pullback in spending lasts about 18 months into a recession, DeVeydt said. “We really are at the end of that 18-month period. We’ve taken the view that it will spike back up and if it doesn’t we’ll do better than out projected guidance.

WellPoint, Inc. (WLP) Given New $85.00 Price Target by Goldman ...

Equities research analysts at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) lowered their price target on shares of WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) to $85.00 in a research note to investors on Thursday. The analysts currently have a “neutral” rating on the stock.

Separately, analysts at UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) raised their EPS on shares of WellPoint, Inc. in a research note to investors on Thursday, July 21st. They now have a “buy” rating and a $90.00 price target on the stock. Also, analysts at Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of WellPoint, Inc. from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note to investors on Wednesday, July 20th.

Shares of WellPoint, Inc. traded down 0.86% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $67.80. WellPoint, Inc. has a 52 week low of $48.61 and a 52 week high of $81.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $76. and its 200-day moving average is $71.56. The company has a market cap of $24.894 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.29.

WellPoint, Inc. last announced its quarterly results on Wednesday, July 27th. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the previous quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $1.80 EPS by $0.03. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that WellPoint, Inc. will post $1.69 EPS next quarter.

WellPoint, Inc. (WellPoint) is a health benefits company serving 33.7 million medical members, as of December 31, 2009. The Company is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), an association of independent health benefit plans. It serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California and as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS), licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington), and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas, it does business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield or Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield. WellPoint is licensed to conduct insurance operations in all 50 states through its subsidiaries. On December 1, 2009, the Company sold its prescription benefits management subsidiaries to Express Scripts, Inc.

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