Yahoo Finance Here's Why You Should Hold eHealth (EHTH) Stock for Now
eHealth EHTH is poised for growth banking on solid Medicare and Individual, Family and Small Business performance and financial position.
Business Tailwinds
eHealth continues to witness strong momentum in Medicare Advantage enrollment growth. The insurer has made significant progress toward enhancing telesales organization, which is expected to drive the Medicare business.
An increase in Medicare plan-approved members, owing to growth in Medicare Advantage plan members, higher Medicare Supplement plan members, strong consumer demand, online enrollment growth, and an increase in internal agent productivity during the Medicare Advantage open enrollment period are expected to drive revenues for the Medicare segment in the long run.
The Individual, Family and Small Business segment is likely to gain from higher commission revenues, higher individual and family major medical plan approved members, and dental plan approved members, an increase in vision plan approved members and a continuing increase in the persistency of the existing book of business. EHTH continues to witness stronger member retention rates in LTV assessments for the majority of the earlier group of certain products in the Individual, Family and Small Business segment.
Higher revenues and a decrease in operating expenses are likely to boost the profits of this segment as well.
The tailwinds have aided eHealth in maintaining a sustainable revenue growth trend over the past few years. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2023 revenues is pegged at $489.2 million. The figure indicates a year-over-year increase of 6.8%.
eHealth guides total revenues in the range of $448 million to $470 million in 2022.
eHealth also boasts a solid balance sheet with $232 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities with $70 million of debt following last quarter's financing agreement with Blue Torch as of Mar 31, 2022.
Zacks Rank & Price Performance
eHealth currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). In the past year, the stock has lost 84.2% against the industry’s growth of 9.6%. The solid performance of the Medicare business and a robust capital position are expected to help the stock bounce back.
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Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the insurance industry are RLI Corp. RLI, W.R. Berkley Corporation WRB and HCI Group, Inc. HCI, each carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
RLI Corp.’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average earnings surprise being 45.89%. In the past year, RLI Corp. has increased 7%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RLI’s 2022 earnings has moved 0.7% north in the past 30 days.
W.R. Berkley’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average earnings surprise being 27.08%. In the past year, W.R. Berkley's stock has increased 34.3%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for WRB’s 2022 and 2023 earnings has moved 6.3% and 6.2% north, respectively, in the past 60 days.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HCI Group’s 2022 and 2023 earnings has moved 33.3% and 40% north, respectively, in the past 60 days. In the past year, HCI Group stock has lost 35.9%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HCI’s 2022 and 2023 earnings per share indicates year-over-year increases of 280.9% and 75%, respectively.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HCI’s 2022 and 2023 earnings per share indicates year-over-year increases of 280.9% and 75%, respectively.
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