INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — WellPoint Inc. will become the second major health insurer to detail its third-quarter performance and discuss the health care overhaul's enrollment period when it reports results Wednesday.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Investors appear to have set a higher bar for health insurer earnings, and WellPoint competitor UnitedHealth Group Inc. fell short of it Thursday when it said third-quarter earnings inched up 1 percent and it narrowed its 2013 forecast instead of raising it. Shares of UnitedHealth, WellPoint and other insurers then slid.
The sector may have become a victim of its own success. Insurers have turned in strong performances for several quarters now, and the shares of UnitedHealth and WellPoint both reached all-time high prices earlier this year.
Citi analyst Carl McDonald has said investors have come to expect big earnings gains.
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