BUZZ-Humana rises as it sees Q1 medical cost ratio better than expected

Shares of U.S. health insurer Humana HUM.N rise 2.38% to $273.14 premarket

Co sees Q1 medical loss ratio, a closely watched metric tracking costs, better than analyst's estimates

Sees Q1 medical loss ratio of about 87.5%, compared to expectations of 89.08% - LSEG data

Health insurers expect medical loss ratio to be about 80%, which is the percentage of premiums it spends on medical care

Sees annual medical loss ratio in a range of 90.1% to 90.5%, worse than analyst expectations of 89.52%

Forecasts annual profit of about $16.25, slightly below Wall Street estimates of $16.71 per share

Shares of other health insurers down: Cigna CI.N 0.52%, Elevance Health ELV.N 0.01%, CVS Health CVS.N 0.09%

In the last 12 months, HUM down 23.8%