WellPoint’s Quarterly Revenue, Profit Jump

WellPoint Health Networks Inc. said Wednesday that its first-quarter profit jumped 37%, exceeding analyst forecasts, in part because of strong enrollment of new members in California.

WellPoint posted first-quarter net income of $193.1 million, or $1.29 a share, up from $141.1 million, or 97 cents, a year earlier.

The earnings beat Wall Street’s average forecast of $1.20 a share, according to a poll by Thomson First Call.

WellPoint’s revenue rose 23% to $4.8 billion in the period, up from $3.9 billion a year earlier.

“There were good, solid results across the board,” said UBS Warburg analyst William McKeever.

The Thousand Oaks-based managed health-care company said its membership rose 5% to 13.5 million, up from 12.9 million a year earlier.

Building enrollment is a key to future growth, analysts said, because earlier this month Maryland regulators rejected WellPoint’s $1.37-billion offer to buy a 3.2-million member Blue Cross plan in the mid-Atlantic region.

The quarterly results were announced after the financial markets closed. On Wednesday, WellPoint’s shares rose 55 cents to close at $73.66 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In March, WellPoint’s board of directors authorized a stock buyback plan to purchase 5 million shares.

“Our outstanding performance for the quarter was driven by strong enrollment growth, our ability to control administrative costs and share repurchases during the quarter,” said Chief Financial Officer David C. Colby.

In other health-care industry news, Apria Healthcare Group Inc. of Lake Forest on Wednesday reported a 21% increase in first-quarter profit to $27.8 million, or 50 cents a share, up from $23 million or 41 cents, a year earlier.

Apria’s revenue rose 11% to $335.1 million, up from $301.3 million in the same period a year earlier.

Apria’s stock rose 22 cents Wednesday to close at $23.58 on the NYSE.