nitedHealth Group Inc., which has nearly 4,000 workers in Orange County, posted a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit earlier this month, helped by added enrollment in its healthcare plans and fewer claims for medical services.
The Minneapolis-based insurer, the country’s largest by its $45 billion market value, posted a quarterly profit of $1.04 billion that topped the $929 million analysts were expecting on average.
Revenue was up 10% to $24 billion, surpassing Wall Street projections of $23.8 billion.
United also backed an earlier 2011 profit forecast of $3.9 billion to $4 billion while raising its revenue projection slightly to $99 billion to $100 billion.
Analysts on average expect UnitedHealth to post a $4.1 billion profit this year on revenue of $100 billion.
The company amassed a big operation here with its 2005 acquisition of Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems.
Enrollment in UnitedHealth’s commercial plans, which includes PacifiCare, grew 8% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier with an overall enrollment gain of 3% to 37.5 million people.
One issue facing UnitedHealth and other insurers is healthcare reform, according to the Bedford Report, which is published by New York-based Paragon Financial Ltd.
Insurers now have to meet what are called minimum medical-loss ratios, which measure the percentage of premium dollars spent on medical care. If insurers don’t meet a minimum ratio, they could have to issue rebates to enrollees.
The new Republican-led House of Representatives recently staged a symbolic vote to repeal last year’s healthcare reform law.
The measure is expected to die in the Senate, where Democrats still hold sway.
Questcor Lauded
Anaheim Hills-based Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. is among 10 biotechnology companies with top-performing management, according to an article published on investor website Seeking Alpha.
Questcor, maker of a drug to treat a rare form of epilepsy called infantile spasms, came in at No. 6 on the list, which was compiled by Kapitall, an investment trading site with its headquarters in New York and Seattle.
Management teams were ranked based on several factors, including return on assets, return on invested capital and return on equity.
Questcor had a five-year average return on assets of 34%, compared to an industry average of 9.9%.
The drug maker had a five-year average return on investments of 10.4%, versus an average of 3.6%.
Questcor’s five-year return on equity was 48.3%, compared to an industry average of 16.4%.
The company had a “short float”—or number of shares outstanding held by short sellers who are betting on a drop in its share price—of 13.3%.
Questcor’s stock has gained more than 200% in the past 12 months to a recent market value of nearly $1 billion.
The company moved to Anaheim from the Bay Area last fall, primarily because Chief Executive Don Bailey sought a base closer to his Yorba Linda home.
Biotech Licenses UCI Patents
The University of California, Irvine, entered into a licensing deal with Repligen Corp., a Waltham, Mass.-based company, for a patent covering the use of histone deacetylase 3 inhibitors for treating memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Repligen said in a statement that the patent is based on work conducted at UCI by professor Marcelo Wood, who demonstrated that one of the inhibitors improved long-term memory in animals.
The data, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, indicated the inhibitors “should be further evaluated for use in a variety of disorders in which the acquisition or extinction of a long-term memory is a factor,” said Walter Herlihy, Repligen’s chief executive.
Ensign Buys Utah Center
Mission Viejo-based Ensign Group Inc. has bought a continuing care retirement center in Salt Lake City for an undisclosed price.
The nursing home company said it agreed to buy Christus St. Joseph Villa and the Christus Marian Center, a behavioral health center operated within St. Joseph Villa, from Salt Lake City-based Christus Health.
St. Joseph Villa has 221 nursing home beds, 48 assisted living apartments and 60 independent living apartments. Christus Marian Center has 12 psychiatric beds.
Although Ensign declined to name a purchase price, it said it purchased St. Joseph Villa with cash and that it expected the property to be accretive to earnings this year.
With the deal, Ensign, the smallest of the county’s three publicly traded nursing home operators following Foothill Ranch-based Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. and Irvine’s Sun Healthcare Group Inc., now has 85 facilities in California and six other states.
Bits and Pieces
Tustin-based Radient Pharmaceuticals Corp. said that it received European regulatory approval for its Onko-Sure in vitro diagnostic test as a tumor marker for cancer. Separately, Radient officials discussed their company last week at a Tokyo conference hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group … ICU Medical Inc., a San Clemente maker of intravenous connectors and other medical devices, made a presentation earlier this month at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco … Irvine-based ChromaDex Corp. received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop plant-based antioxidants known as anthocyanins. ChromaDex makes research tools for the food and beverage industries.
