Healthcare Stocks To Watch (AET, CVH, AGN)
Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) added 0.49% to $31.03 on about 4.74 million shares. The company on Wednesday reported third-quarter net income of $497.6 million, a 53% gain on $362.2 million in the prior-year period. On a per share basis, the company earned $1.19 against $0.73, a gain of 63%, and $0.84 when adjusted for prior-period reserve development.
The company reported revenue of $8.54 billion against $8.72 billion. A consensus estimate of analysts polled by FactSet Research called for the company to earn $0.68 on sales of $8.44 billion.
Over the past 52-week, the stock had traded within the range of $25-$35.96 and is down more than 3% year-to-date.
Coventry Health Care, Inc. (NYSE:CVH) went up 5.92% to $24.87 on about 4.51 million shares. Net income of the company for the quarter more than doubled to $189.9 million, or $1.29 per share, from $70.6 million, or 48 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, earnings of $1.24 per share soared past the analysts’ average estimate of 67 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total operating revenue fell nearly 18 percent to $2.84 billion, while analysts expected $2.85 billion.
The company raised its full-year forecast for core earnings, excluding items, to a range of $3.52 to $3.62 per share. It previously gave a range of $2.55 to $2.70.
Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN) fell 3.63% to $70.87 on about 4.13 million shares. The company reported a third-quarter net loss of $670.5 million, or $2.21 a share, compared with a profit of $239.2 million, or 58 cents a share, a year before.
Excluding special items, Allergan said it earned 78 cents a share, up from 70 cents a share the year before. Analysts on average had expected the Irvine, California-based company to report earnings of 78 cents a share on sales of $1.18 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
The company also raised its full-year sales outlook to $4.75 billion to $4.8 billion from its previous forecast of $4.62 billion to $4.75 billion.