Net profit remains elusive as Alignment Healthcare surpasses membership goals again

Alignment Healthcare raised membership yet again following its third-quarter earnings, but the company is still not profitable.

The insurer recorded a net loss of $26 million but Medicare Advantage membership is up 57.7% year-over-year at 182,300 members.

Alignment posted a loss of 14 cents per share, as expected by analysts with Zacks Investment Research, and quarterly revenue of $692.4 million.

“This marks the second quarter in a row where both adjusted gross profit and adjusted EBITDA achieved the high end of our guidance ranges, placing us on solid footing as we enter the final quarter of the year and prepare for 2025,” said CEO John Kao during the earnings call.

The company is again raising full-year guidance for membership and revenue. Alignment is projecting 184,000 to 186,000 members after previously targeting one million enrollees “over the next several years.”

“To put our growth and margin performance into perspective, we have added more seniors in the last 12 months than in the prior three years combined,” said CFO Thomas Freeman.

Analysts with William Blair noted outsized membership growth may bring down fourth-quarter margins. Alignment counters that the company is proving able to manage utilization.

Alignment predicted profitability in January. The company is expecting an adjusted EBITDA loss of 10 million up to a gain of five million for the end of the year.

Kao said he is “confident” Alignment will achieve a $40 million adjusted EBITDA in 2025.

Alignment heard good news earlier this month when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) gave the company five stars on a Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plan, just one of seven contracts to earn the honor. Virtually all of Alignment’s contracts are rated 4 stars or better.

The company serves 8.7 million members in six states, including California and North Carolina.