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Why Should You Retain Molina Healthcare in Your Portfolio?

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Molina Healthcare, Inc (MOH - Free Report) is poised for growth, riding on a healthy revenue stream and restructuring initiatives.

Its VGM Score of A is also impressive. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum, with the score being a weighted combination of all three factors.

Now let’s see what makes this stock an investor favorite.

In the first quarter of 2020, the company’s total revenues of $4.5 billion surpassed the consensus mark by 2.7%. The top line also increased 10.4% year over year on increased membership. Total membership by Government Program at the end of the first quarter stood at 3.4 billion, up 0.3% year over year.

The company has seen consistent growth in its revenue base in the past several years. Although the top line declined in 2018 and 2019, it again bounced back in the March-end quarter. Management expects total revenues to grow to $3 billion within a couple of years.

It has been gaining from the restructuring- and profitability-improvement plan started back in 2017. The plan included streamlining of organizational structure to improve efficiency as well as the speed and quality of decision making. This initiative led to a total expense decline of 13.2% and 11% in 2018 and 2019, respectively. We expect this initiative to help curb costs further.

The company reaffirmed its initial guidance despite the COVID-19 effect. Total revenues are expected to be $18.3 billion for 2020, suggesting an 8.7% increase from the year-ago reported number. The company anticipates earnings in the range of $11.20-$11.70 per share.

The company has been deploying capital to enhance shareholder value on the back of its balance-sheet strength. In the first quarter, it bought back shares worth $450 million. Its impressive capital position, which assists in efficient capital management, will attract investors’ attention.

However, the company exited certain unprofitable exchanges due to the disappointing performance of the Marketplace business.

Over the past 30 days, its 2020 earnings estimate moved 1% north.

In a year’s time, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have rallied 42.6%, outperforming its industry’s growth of 10.4%.

The performance looks stellar when compared with other companies in the same space, such as Anthem Inc. , UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH - Free Report) and Centene Corporation (CNC - Free Report) , which have gained 0.3%, 16.4% and 18.5%, respectively, in the same time frame. All these companies hold the same rank as Molina Healthcare. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


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