I can think of 100 ways to spend those BILLION dollars on member care, offering affordable plans, paying our providers on time, expanding our network and not to mention saving layoffs.
Who am I ? Except not a CFO.
12 replies (most recent on top)
@4rlz+1pcg8VPI - Looks like someone drank the kool-aid - as I said, grow their wallet.
“As The Harvard Business Review documented in 2020, corporate America has been on a substantial buyback binge. This is great news for the fortunate few who take home the cheddar, but the practice is, it writes, “bad management,” for the simple reason that it’s not a revenue-generating investment for the business or its workers, nor is it a reward for hard work well done. What’s more, argues the Review, “When companies do these buybacks, they deprive themselves of the liquidity that might help them cope when sales and profits decline in an economic downturn.” TNR contributor Bruce Bartlett savaged stock buybacks on these pages in 2020. He referred to the practice as one of the worst products of Milton Friedman’s “shareholder revolution” and its attendant “decline in labor’s share of national income, higher pay for corporate executives and greater income inequality, reduced corporate investment, and slower economic growth.”
Bartlett also points out that because managers can time when stock buybacks happen, they are able to use the practice to “manipulate stock prices for their own benefit.”
There is not grow your wallet with stock buy back id--t, it is pure manipulation to create a surge in price, only if you cash out when the price goes up, otherwise you are delivering the company because you cant add capital with a decent return
Grow the business or grow your own wallet - executive pay is mostly stocks. Layoffs and cheaper labor increases stock price. Money savings are then used to buyback stocks to increase stock price. A Win Win.
Clearly by q3 earnings report, they over performed over 1.5 billon stock buy back, now that the word is out, let see the stock sink as it just started to happen, what a sh---y company .
This is a strategy used by publicly traded companies. They are expecting a recession and don’t plan to buy another company. They are cash heavy from all the divestitures. Instead of sitting in it, they use it to support the stock price which will likely drop along with the rest of the market when that recession is inevitably announced.
Buying stocks back can be risky, you are sacrificing your liquidity with the hope to get a bit of a surge in the stock price, the thing is that most investors are realizing Centene is the pit , and nobody is running to buy their stock, it is a company in decline, badly run and no one sees it like a good prospect.
Centene is run by a bunch id--t, a CEO that is utterly useless and unqualified. Management is ruining the organization not vanguard or politan or anyone else, it is management, it is Sarah, it is Drew and all the bad decisions they are making, they just don't know how to run the company and I am sure some of board are starting to realize of the big sh-t show,
That money would have been much better invested in improving the infrastructure of the business, improving SLAs, and technology, and investing in quality improvement initiatives. Which would improve the share price more than any stock buyback. This is what happens when a healthcare company is run by a Hedge fund.
Well they have some surprises coming as I know of a number of providers who will not be renewing for 2024 due to payment issues and have not yet advised Centene. Their network is flailing and they deserve it!!
The new Centene does not know how to leverage it cash to invest it and improve the business, all they do now is buy back their own stock, very short term work as long as the company has some liquidity, let see how they last because long term without the strategic investment they have been lacking, this organization is in dire straits.
Totally agree, they are sneaky and manipulative, they will do anything and everything not to pay providers which in turn hurts who they are suppose to help the members and the poor CSR who have to deal with angry providers and members.
No surprise as to where this companies priorities are and it is definitely not with the members, providers or their employees. As the saying goes "every beginning has an end" and they are going to crash and burn it's just a matter of when.