Molina Healthcare earned $185 million in profit for the third quarter, beating Wall Street expectations.
That's up from the third quarter of 2019, when the insurer brought in $175 million in profit, according to Molina's earnings report released Wednesday evening.
Revenues for the quarter also climbed year over year, reaching $5 billion compared to $4.2 billion in the third quarter of 2019. Revenue surpassed Wall Street projections as well.
Total revenue and profit across the first three quarters of 2020 also increased from the prior year, Molina said. Revenues through Sept. 30 were $13.4 billion, and total profit for the first three quarters of 2020 was $639 million.
Molina attributes the jump in revenue to notably higher premium revenues both in the third quarter and across the first nine months of 2020. Premium revenues were up by 16.8% compared to the prior-year quarter and are 11.3% higher than the first three quarters of 2019.
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“Our third quarter performance was marked by the continued delivery of solid earnings and the focused execution of our growth strategy, all achieved in the midst of a global pandemic,” said Joseph Zubretsky, president and CEO of Molina Healthcare, in a statement. “We continue to take major steps forward in our transformation, expanding our business portfolio while staying focused on our members and customers to help them during this most difficult time.”
As evidence of this growth, the insurer highlighted two recent acquisitions in its earnings report: Affinity Health Plan and certain assets of Passport Health Plan's Kentucky business.
Due to the performance in the quarter, Molina has increased its revenue guidance for the year to about $19.6 billion but will maintain its earnings guidance.