Will Earnings Miss Continue at eHealth (EHTH) This Season?
eHealth, Inc. (EHTH) is set to report second-quarter 2014 results on Jul 30. Last quarter, the company posted a 250% negative earnings surprise. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.
Factors Influencing This Past Quarter
eHealth is likely to have witness lower submitted application volume in the second quarter. This is unlikely to be compensated by the opportunities in Medicare and Individual & Family Plan markets or enrollment in private exchanges.
The company also engages in share repurchases that lower its share count and in turn give a boost to its bottom line. However, shares repurchased under its $50 million authorization are less likely to have driven its earnings in the to-be reported quarter.
Earnings Whispers
Our proven model does not conclusively show that eHealth is likely to beat earnings estimate this quarter because it does not have the right combination of two key ingredients. A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 for this to happen. This is not the case here, as you will see below.
Zacks ESP: eHealth has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. That is because the Most Accurate Estimate and Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 8 cents.
Zacks Rank: eHealth has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) that decreases the predictive power of ESP. A combination of Zacks Rank #4 and a 0.00% Earnings ESP make surprise prediction difficult.
Other Stocks to Consider
Here are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:
Arch Capital Group Ltd. (ACGL), Earnings ESP of +5.10% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (RNR), Earnings ESP of +1.71% and a Zacks Rank #2.
XL Group plc (XL), Earnings ESP of +1.20% and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Read the Full Research Report on XL
Read the Full Research Report on RNR
Read the Full Research Report on EHTH
Read the Full Research Report on ACGL
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