By Denny Jacob

Centene reported higher first-quarter revenue and membership enrollment for certain health insurance lines, but results were overshadowed by membership declines in Medicaid and Medicare.

Shares declined 1.8% to $60.46 in premarket trading Friday. The stock is up 1.8% on the year so far.

During the quarter, Centene said total Medicaid membership fell to 12.9 million from 13.3 million a year earlier, while Medicare membership, which includes Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement, fell to 1.04 million from 1.15 million a year earlier. Individual marketplace membership rose to 5.63 million from 4.35 million a year ago.

Other areas of Centene's results showed improvement.

The St. Louis health insurer said premium and services revenues increased 17% to $42.49 billion, primarily driven by premium and membership growth in the Medicare prescription drug plan business along with overall market growth in the marketplace business.

Health benefits ratio rose slightly to 87.5% in the quarter, from 87.1% a year earlier.

Looking ahead, Centene said it's raising its 2025 premium and service revenues guidance to a range of $164.0 billion to $166.0 billion due to higher-than-expected annual enrollment periods for Medicare Advantage and Marketplace.

Centene backed its 2025 expectations for earnings of at least $6.19 a share and adjusted earnings of at least $7.25 a share.

Centene logged earnings of $1.31 billion, or $2.63 a share, up from $1.16 billion, or $2.16 a share, in the prior-year period.

Stripping out certain one-time items, earnings came in at $2.90 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $2.52 a share.

Revenue rose to $46.62 billion from $40.41 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $42.76 billion.

Write to Denny Jacob at denny.jacob@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2025 08:08 ET (12:08 GMT)

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