Guidance updates at Centene, Skechers, Carter's: Trending Tickers

In This Article:

Julie Hyman joins Wealth host Brad Smith to look at some of the top trending stories of the trading session.

Centene (CNC) raised its full-year revenue forecast but warned of higher Medicaid costs.

Skechers (SKX) stock is falling after the company pulled its full-year outlook amid tariff concerns.

Carter's (CRI) also pulled its outlook on macroeconomic uncertainty.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.

00:00 Speaker A

Now time for some of today's trending tickers. We're taking a look at three earnings movers. We've got Centene, we've got Skechers, it's the S and Carter's joining me now. We've got Market Domination co-host, Julie Hyman, here on set. Good to see you, Julie. First stop here, we gotta talk about the healthcare provider Centene raising its sales forecast for the year with strong enrollment in its Obamacare exchange plans. However, shares are sliding after the company noted higher costs associated with its Medicaid plans. Shares lower by about 7 and a quarter percent right now.

00:42 Julie Hyman

I got an acronym I'm going to throw at you. I know you love the acronym.

00:45 Speaker A

Yeah, I'm ready.

00:46 Julie Hyman

I know you love the acronym. Love acronyms. Big acronym fan. MLR. MLR, medical loss ratio. This is an important number when we're talking about, um, health insurance companies. It is the percentage of premiums that they pay out to cover healthcare. It's another way basically of looking at their margins, right? How profitable are these companies? Well, in the case of Centene, its medical loss ratio last quarter was 87 and a half percent. That was in line with estimates. For the full year, the company says that that ratio is going to be 88.9% to 89 and a half percent. Um, and, uh, it it looks like that that is an increase. In other words, it is negative. It is paying out more of the premiums it collects to cover the cost of care, um, that it is ensuring here. And so that's something that a lot of analysts have pointed to. Also, the company raised its full-year revenue forecast, but didn't raise its profit forecast. Sort of on a similar note. So just some profitability, um, focus here for investors. At the same time, because this is an insurer that is heavily, um, indexed to Medicaid, and as we know, maybe there are some concerns about Medicaid cuts. That's something, not necessarily through this earnings, but that's something that investors are are thinking about.

02:46 Speaker A

All right, they're factoring into some of these share price actions we're seeing today. Next up, let's go where the feats go. Well, shares of Skechers sliding after the company withdrew its outlook for the full year citing macroeconomic uncertainty tied to the global trade war. Now previously Skechers was expecting annual sales of 9.7 to 9.8 billion dollars. In a filing, Skechers said in 2024, substantially all of its products were manufactured outside of the US, primarily in China and Vietnam. Shares right now are down by about 3.8%. It's not taking a hit as much of it as much as it could be perhaps on, uh, the share price action here on the day considering what they did disclose in the outside majority of their manufacturing.

03:57 Julie Hyman

Yeah, you know, it's interesting here because the company emphasizing in its conference call that, yes, first of all, it won't it won't. That information about where it's manufactured didn't come from the company today. It said they they said they don't like to give you precisely where their production is coming from, but they did say that all of this is going to have an effect. The other thing that they kept emphasizing on the call is how much of their sales are outside of the United States. They say two-thirds of the business is outside of the United States and therefore would not necessarily be subject to the same kind of tariff. So that's something to keep in mind. Looking at some of the analyst commentary here, it looks like that analysts are looking sort of, you know, they're looking further out here and trying to figure out, um, whether some of this has already been priced into the stock. So depending on who some of them are saying that's potentially the case.

05:31 Speaker A

Yeah, you got some positivity in their wholesale growth. That was up by about 8%. Direct to consumer, that also grew by about 6% here. Uh, but gross margin, that seems to be where there is a little bit of pressure that investors are dialed into right now. That was still 52%, but a decrease, um, because of some of the lower average selling prices.

06:02 Julie Hyman

Right, and then the question is if they get hit with tariffs, will that be further correct?

06:10 Speaker A

Yeah. So let's also round this out with children's clothing brand Carters. Let's, uh, dive into that one. That's also suspending future-looking guidance as the company recently appointed a new CEO saying tariffs introduced substantial uncertainty here. Shares of Carters right now, they're down by about 8 and a quarter percent.

06:52 Julie Hyman

Yeah, this is a children's clothing staple, right? Um, uh, Carter's brand that is. Uh, the company's new CEO just started on like April 3rd. So that's one of the reasons they're talking, but obviously tariffs are also a an issue here. And Carter's was more specific on its call about where it makes its stuff. So they said they have reduced their reliance on China because of what's been going on over the past couple of years and they said now they make a a lot of their stuff in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and India. That those represent the largest countries of origin. And then at 2024, China production was less than 2% of their apparel and accessories, uh, country of origin. Um, so that's something to keep in mind. That said, they also said the call the proposed higher tariffs would result in meaningful increases to our product costs if not otherwise mitigated. Now, Carter's, like Skechers, like all of these companies,

08:17 Speaker A

Yeah.

08:22 Julie Hyman

they don't want to raise prices.

08:26 Speaker A

No. No.

08:27 Julie Hyman

That's what they're saying. They don't want to have to raise prices because in this environment especially they're concerned about a hit to demand if they do raise prices. So a lot of them are trying to move things around. Where can we make things differently? Where can we ramp up production, you know, ramp down production. And so, um, different ones sort of have different flexibility in order to do that.

08:57 Speaker A

Same with the clothing attire too. Carter's, OshKosh fame. Julie, thanks so much. Appreciate it. You can scan the QR code below to track the best and worst performing stocks of the session with Yahoo Finance's trending ticker page.

09:18 Julie Hyman

Yeah.