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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Aetna raises 2012 outlook after profit beats estimates, (NYSE: AET)

Aetna Inc reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday, saying it had reached its 2012 membership goal ahead of schedule, held down costs with doctors and benefited from higher medical insurance premiums.The third-largest U.S. health insurer also boosted its 2012 outlook to the top end of its previous forecast range of $5.00 to $5.10 a share.Aetna shares rose about 2 percent in pre-market trading to $44.91 compared with a close of $43.95."Overall, it was a solid operating quarter. A big part of this business is that in order to have a sustainable margin structure, you need to bring down costs, and they demonstrated that in this quarter," Leerink Swann analyst Jason Gurda said.

Aetna Inc. (Aetna) is a diversified healthcare benefits company. Shares of AET remained unchanged at $43.95. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $34.58 and as high as $51.14. On average, 4571990 shares of AET exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 3537.



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