Centene’s MA Gains Swell Stock, But Could Have Downside

Centene Corp.’s shares rose following its fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 earnings release on Feb. 8, with the market seemingly impressed with the insurer’s Medicaid and Medicare Advantage membership gains. Still, one equities analyst sounded a note of skepticism about what large MA enrollment gains will mean for Centene’s margins.

“Outsized share gains in MA are typically a cautionary sign for margin,” Jefferies analyst David Windley wrote in a Feb. 8 note to investors. Centene’s management “is signaling flat ’22 MA margin, but is flat still optimistic with multiple competitors calling out CNC’s aggressive pricing?”

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Leslie Small

Leslie Small

Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.

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