Thursday, October 25, 2007
WellCare Health Plans (NYSE:WCG) shares plunged after the FBI showed up with search warrants for documents and files at the company's headquarters. The company offered no further details, but are cooperating with the investigation and keeping core services running. Shares were trading at $115 before being halted and are now set to trade around $40.

The investigation is likely related to an abuse of government subsidies for healthcare since any accounting fraud is usually handled by the SEC and IRS. Similar FBI raids took place in the online education industry not long ago, when the government alleged that they were misappropriating subsidized government loans. The case against those companies was eventually dropped after the allegations turned out to be false.

Currently, shares in the company appear to be priced for the worse case scenario. The stock is trading at around $41 per share, which is just a few dollars above the company's $39 per share in cash. Assuming that the company will not be forced to pay any huge fees, a profitable company trading at cash value is definitely something you don't see every day.

In the end, investors do not yet have enough information about the situation to pass judgment. If the investigation goes the way of online education companies not long ago, then the shares will likely return to their previous levels. Meanwhile, even if the investigation finds some issue, a company trading at cash value is certainly a great deal assuming there are no huge fees levied. Combined, these factors make WCG a stock worth watching!

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10/25/2007 4:18:50 PM UTC  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback
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