More layoffs are coming to Humana, much earlier than we predcited.
I guess the early-retirement program did not have enough candidates to save the rest of us...
Source below:
Humana's recently announced voluntary early-retirement program is expected to ease the impact of possible future layoffs at the Louisville-based insurance company.
According to a source close to the situation, the voluntary early-retirement program is one of many measures the company will take to better position the company's operations in 2018.
Another measure will be layoffs to reduce the company's workforce to make the company's operations more efficient, according to the source.
Kate Marx, corporate communications strategic consultant for Humana declined to comment.
Yesterday, Humana (NYSE: HUM) confirmed that it started a voluntary early retirement program"to prepare for 2018 and to further position the company for a strong long-term future."
To be eligible, employees must be 55 years of age or older, have five years or more of completed service, and have a combination of age and years of service that equals 65 or greater. The company did not say how many of its 51,000 employees would be eligible.
Sources say the goal of the unspecified measures Humana will implement in the next few months are meant to return the company to a steady and sustainable success.
But Humana's financial performance has exceeded expectations recently.
Humana officials increased the guidance for annual earnings twice in 2017: once after receiving a nearly $1 billion breakup fee from former merger suitor Aetna Inc. and again after a strong second-quarter performance.
For both quarters, Humana beat analysts' earning projections.
The company raised its guidance for 2017 earnings per share to at least $17.83. At the beginning of the year, Humana projected at least $16.65 earning per share for 2017.
Earnings per share for 2016 was $4.07, according to Humana's 2016 annual report.
Also, Humana's stock price closed at its highest level ever on Sept. 1, at $258.75, according to Yahoo Finance data. Since then, the company's stock price has slipped to $237.21 at the close of trading yesterday.
According to the source close to Humana, the company needs to adjust its course to better deal with environmental factors faces, but the source did not describe those factors.
Humana already has implemented workforce reduction efforts in 2017.
Most recently, Humana announced it would lay off about 180 employees in its Humana at Home division in August. Humana also announced layoffs in the Humana At Home division in February. About 500 employees were affected.
In March, Humana executed another round of layoffs but offered few details, saying only that the layoffs wouldn't severely impact its Louisville operation.
Humana is Louisville's largest publicly traded company. It has 12,500 employees in the Louisville area and 51,600 overall.
Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2017/09/26/even-with-early-retirement-program-humana-likely.html