Centene (CNC) Q1 Earnings Report Preview: What To Look For

Health coverage company Centene (NYSE:CNC) will be announcing earnings results tomorrow before market hours. Here’s what to expect.

Centene beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 4.4% last quarter, reporting revenues of $40.81 billion, up 3.4% year on year. It was a very strong quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts’ EPS estimates and a narrow beat of analysts’ customer base estimates. It lost -39,400 customers and ended up with a total of 28.6 million.

Is Centene a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Centene’s revenue to grow 6.5% year on year to $43.03 billion, improving from the 3.9% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $2.52 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Centene has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates twice over the last two years.

Looking at Centene’s peers in the health insurance providers segment, some have already reported their Q1 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Elevance Health delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 14.8%, beating analysts’ expectations by 5.3%, and Molina Healthcare reported revenues up 12.2%, topping estimates by 2.6%. Elevance Health traded up 4.9% following the results.

Read our full analysis of Elevance Health’s results here and Molina Healthcare’s results here.

Debates around the economy’s health and the impact of potential tariffs and corporate tax cuts have caused much uncertainty in 2025. While some of the health insurance providers stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 7.7% on average over the last month. Centene is up 2.7% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $79.50 (compared to the current share price of $62.19).

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