April 29 (Reuters) – Humana on Wednesday reaffirmed its annual adjusted profit forecast despite a quarterly earnings beat driven by the health insurer spending less on medical services than expected.
The health insurer’s shares fell 4.45% to $219.50 before the bell.
The company expects annual adjusted profit to be at least $9, but lowered its reported profit forecast to “at least $8.36” from the previous estimate of “at least $8.89”.
The forecast anticipates a year-over-year decline as a result of the Star Ratings, which are given by the Medicare agency.
On an adjusted basis, the company earned a profit of $10.31 per share, higher than analysts’ estimates of $10.19 per share, per data compiled by LSEG.
(Reporting by Sneha S K and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
