Heath insurer Amerigroup Corp. said Friday its fourth-quarter net income nearly doubled from a year ago on rate increases in three states.
The results beat Wall Street's expectations and shares climbed $2.29, or 4.1 percent, to $58.09 in afternoon trading.
Net income rose to $79.6 million, or $1.59 per share, in the three months ended Dec. 31, from $40.2 million, or 79 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Revenue rose 10 percent to $1.5 billion from $1.36 billion in the previous year due to rate increases in Georgia, Texas and Florida. Membership also rose 8 percent year-over-year to about 1.9 million members. And the company paid out 80.4 percent of each premium dollar on medical claims, down from 84.6 percent a year earlier.
On average, analysts polled by FactSet expected net income of $1.10 per share on $1.52 billion in revenue.
For the year, net income increased 83 percent to $273.4 million, or $5.40 per share, from $149.3 million, or $2.85 per share, in 2009. Revenue totaled $5.81 billion, up 12 percent from $5.19 billion.
Analysts predicted net income of $4.90 for the year on $5.82 billion in revenue.