Aetna trumped analyst earnings expectations for the final quarter of 2016, but the health insurer’s 2017 forecast starts off well below Wall Street projections.
The nation’s third largest insurer said Tuesday that it expects adjusted earnings of at least $8.55 for the new year.
Analysts forecast, on average, earnings of $8.78 per share, according to FactSet.
In the fourth quarter, Aetna earnings sank 57 percent to $139 million, the drop attributed largely to restructuring costs that included $215 million for a voluntary early retirement program.
Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, totaled $1.63 in the quarter, and the insurer’s total revenue climbed 4.5 percent to $15.73 billion.
Analysts expected earnings of $1.45 per share on $15.87 billion in revenue, according to Zacks Investment Research.
Aetna said Tuesday that it continues to review a takeover bid for bid for rival health insurer Humana.
Last week, a federal judge rejected the roughly $34 billion deal on the grounds that it would hurt competition in hundreds of Medicare Advantage markets. That decision may be appealed by Aetna.
The Department of Justice sued last summer to stop Aetna’s pursuit of Humana and a separate buyout attempt, Anthem’s $48-billion bid for Cigna Corp. That case has yet to be decided.
Shares of Aetna Inc., based in Hartford, Connecticut, have fallen almost 6 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has risen almost 2 percent. The stock has increased 18 percent in the last 12 months.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on AET at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AET
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