UPDATE: Humana Q2 Revenue Beats Estimates

Humana (NYSE: HUM) reported an 18% drop in its second-quarter profit. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company's quarterly profit slipped to $344 million, or $2.19 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $420 million, or $2.63 per share. The decline in profit was primarily due to investments in health-care exchanges and state-based contracts and higher specialty drug costs associated with a new treatment of Hepatitis C as well as a lower diluted share count.Its revenue jumped 18% to $12.22 billion versus $10.32 billion. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $2.19 a share on revenue of $11.94 billion. Humana's total Medicare Advantage membership rose 14% year-to-date to over 2.8 million, while Medicare stand-alone PDP membership climbed 19% to around 3.9 million. Individual commercial membership jumped 1225 year-to-date to over 1.1 million, while state-based Medicaid membership jumped 91% to around 163,000. For the first-half, Healthcare Services segment pretax income jumped 62% y/y.The company reaffirmed its FY14 earnings forecast of $7.25 to $7.75 per share. “Our second-quarter and year-to-date results show the effectiveness of our integrated care delivery model in driving robust membership growth in our Medicare, health care exchange and state-based Medicaid businesses," said Bruce D. Broussard, President and Chief Executive Officer of Humana.Humana shares fell 2.60% to close at $127.52 yesterday.