Anthem owner WellPoint reports profit slump on investment loss
Published: July 29, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS — Health insurer WellPoint Inc., owner of Anthem, says its profit fell 7.6 percent in the second quarter as it felt the effect of investment losses.
The Indianapolis company says it earned $693.5 million, or $1.43 per share, compared with $750.5 million, or $1.44 per share, in the same quarter last year.
Revenue fell slightly to $15.41 billion.
Thomson Reuters says analysts expected expect, on average, earnings of $1.43 per share on $15.41 billion in revenue.
Medical enrollment fell by 1.1 million members, mainly due to rising unemployment.
WellPoint now expects a full-year profit of $5.06 to $5.12 per share, down from a previous outlook of $5.14 to $5.20 per share.
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Profits.
$693M sounds like a lot in 3 months.
Well their operating profit margin was 7.9% for the 6 month period so far this year.
Does that sound like alot?
When the 30 year T-bill is 4.5%?
No $693M is not alot. For them. Thats why their stock got hammered today.
If you are a buisness and you can’t beat the 30 year T-bill rate, you are better off selling off all your assets, and giving everything back to the shareholders, and tell them go invest in the T-bills yourself.
The matter of investment losses is curious. Whether “long-term” or “short term” losses was Wellpoint forced to liquidate some securities, perhaps prematurely, to raise cash?
On the other hand, if the losses were short-term losses, perhaps there needs to be an inquiry into Wellpoint’s management of investments. In general, both the actively managed and unmanaged portions of my investment portfolio performed better in the 2nd calendar quarter than the 1st. That being said, I was not under any pressure to sell securities to raise cash - was Wellpoint?
As part of health care reform, we as taxpayers need to keep an eye on their profits!
Travis point is well made.
Taking it further, until we elect politicians who put the people, the citizens at least on an equal with Corporations, there will be now real reforms of any kind, whether health or financially related.
We must ban corporate lobbying. Corporations are not citizens, their employees and owners are citizens and welcome to vote and donate in any way they like. Right now we have a national legislature for sale to the highest bidder. Makes no difference whether they are Repub or Dems.
One sure-fire way to limit the influence of money in politics is to make congressmen live, vote, and work at home, not in Washington DC. Millions of Americans Tele-comute, why can’t the Congress? Let them fly, coach, at our expense, twice a year to Washington, DC. September to work on the budget and in January for the State of the Union Address. Otherwise stay home and make the lobbyists come to you.
The insurance companies and drug manufacturers compose the chief proponents of healthcare reform, and their reasoning is not grounded in altruism. Until healthcare delivery is removed from the profit-making arena, it will continue to be an irreparable behemoth. A new paradigm is sorely needed, one that removes profit-making from the rendering of healthcare services.
Oh my, only $693 million in profit. See America? Us health-care angels are having tough times too!
Gosh darn it, we thankfully had enough money to pay our executives. Thank goodness we were able to “manage” your health care for you this year in a way that allowed us to make a small profit.
So friends, don’t destroy our business further by taking the health care business away from us. Trust us, we make all of this money by helping you sucke… er, patients.
i agree, shepherd, what is WRONG with people when making a profit is not enough???!!!
why are the wall st. types and greedy companies never satisfied? why can’t they just be satisfied with what they have already?
these corporate goons are always trying to beat last year, always trying to beat last quarter, always MORE, MORE, MORE, SELL, SELL, SELL!!!
it’s such a stupid, stupid game! and part of the reason this country is in the fine mess it’s in!
I love how profits are bad news.
OK, so you didn’t make as much as you wanted.
You still made $693 MILLION in pofit for the second quarter.
This is what’s wrong with Wall Street and America.
Be happy you made a profit at all, no matter what.
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