Humana (HUM) reported first quarter earnings that met Wall Street expectations Wednesday.

The company beat on adjusted earnings per share of $11.58, compared to Wall Street's estimates of $10.09. Revenue came in at a slight miss of $32.11 billion, just under consensus of $32.15 billion.

The company's stock was up less than 2% in pre-market trading Wednesday.

Humana contributed its results to staying in line with its own expectations, and has reaffirmed its full year guidance. The company expects its medical loss ratio (MLR) — the ratio of premiums taken in versus paid out — to be between 90.1% to 90.5% for the year. While on the higher side of the Affordable Care Act required threshold of 85%, Humana said in a statement that its confident in its pricing strategies and that the Medicare Advantage spend is in line with expectations.

"Medicare Advantage is performing as expected and we are excited about our progress in expanding CenterWell and Medicaid,” Humana president and CEO Jim Rechtin said in a statement.

Humana is one of the larger Medicare Advantage providers, and its report has been on the watchlist after United Health Group's (UNH) earnings miss earlier this month — in part related to higher costs in its MA book than expected. That impacted Humana's stock as well, which sank more than 12% on April 17. It did not fully recover from that, up only about 6% at end of trading Tuesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Humana has also faced other headwinds in its MA business, including losing the most star ratings among its peers this year — meaning it will get lower revenue from Medicare payments, and will likely see loss of members as the plans ratings go down.

Humana has about 18% of the MA market, while UnitedHealth boasts 29%. Third largest is CVS (CVS), with its MA plans under Aetna, at 12%. CVS reports earnings on May 1.

The company is focused on expanding CenterWell, its health services and mail-order pharmacy business unit. Humana said NovoCare, the online pharmacy for Novo Nordisk (NVO), was chosen as part of Novo's latest effort to dispense the blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy directly to cash paying patients.

Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee as AnjKhem on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem.

Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest health industry news and events impacting stock prices