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Centene (NYSE:CNC) on Tuesday revised its earnings estimates for Q3 2024 to a level below consensus, in line with its recent comments on uncertainty over ongoing Medicaid eligibility reviews.
However, the Medicaid-focused insurer reaffirmed its full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) guidance of over $6.80.
Its adjusted diluted EPS guidance of $1.31-$1.41 for Q3 fell short of $1.52 in the consensus, as the company reaffirmed its projection that 20 to 30 cents of adjusted diluted EPS will shift to Q4 from Q3.
After a pandemic-era pause, state-level redeterminations resumed in April 2023, depriving nearly 25 million Americans of their Medicaid coverage as of Aug. 1, according to healthcare policy organization KFF.
“Understandably, it’s difficult with redeterminations and the sell side trying to predict perfectly the quarterly flows within that greater than $6.80,” Centene’s (CNC) CFO Drew Asher said during the Wells Fargo 2024 Healthcare Conference early this month.
“If you look at consensus for Q3, we would take $0.20 to $0.30 out of Q3 and put it into Q4, just to slope out the timing of when we expect to earn in the back half of the year,” he added.