Humana beats its 2027 Medicare Star Ratings target and keeps its $9 profit guide

Humana said Friday it beat its own Top Quartile target on the final 2027 Medicare Advantage Star Ratings and affirmed full-year 2026 adjusted earnings guidance of at least $9 a share, a quality rebound that matters as seniors prepare to pick plans for next year.

What Top Quartile means this year

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released final 2027 Star Ratings on October 8. Those scores will show up on Medicare Plan Finder for the annual election period that runs from October 15 through December 7, and they feed into 2028 quality bonus payments for Medicare Advantage plans.

In an 8-K filed Friday, Humana said it had exceeded its Top Quartile goal on that CMS data. The company defines Top Quartile as Stars revenue per member per month at least 10% above the median of a peer group that includes Centene, CVS, Elevance, Health Care Service Corporation, and United. Stars revenue, in Humana's framing, is the incremental money tied to earning a 3.5-, 4-, or 4.5-star rating, including quality bonus pay for a 4-star result.

Humana said it still intends to design products and benefits as if it performs around that Top Quartile level. It also said some of the Bonus Year 2028 outperformance versus Top Quartile looks one-time, and that it expects a 2028 benefit it can use for one-time investments and returns to shareholders. It plans to say more about the size and use of that benefit when it gives detailed 2028 guidance on the fourth-quarter 2027 earnings call. A virtual investor update is set for December 10 to mark progress against the framework from its 2025 Investor Day.

Member mix Humana is advertising

Separately, in a company release carried on Business Wire, Humana said 95% of its Medicare Advantage members are in plans rated 4.0 stars or above for 2027, and 42% are in 4.5-star plans. It listed six Medicare Advantage contracts at 4.5 stars and twelve at 4.0 stars, said it added eleven Medicare Advantage contracts at 4.0 stars or above versus a year earlier, and said its stand-alone prescription-drug contract also earned 4.5 stars.

Those membership percentages are company claims drawn from the CMS ratings; they are not a CMS industry ranking in the 8-K.

The profit guide it is keeping

Humana affirmed guidance of at least $9.00 in adjusted earnings per common share for the year ending December 31, 2026. That matches the outlook in its July 29 release and a September 1 8-K. The company said it does not expect to change the adjusted figure, even as it finishes the third-quarter close, and that reported earnings guidance could still move because of value-creation and other strategic work. It said it cannot yet bridge the adjusted guide to reported earnings without unreasonable effort while that close is underway.

How the shares are trading

Humana shares were recently $434.03, up $46.91, or about 12%, from Thursday's close of $387.12, according to cnbc.com quotes around 2:28 p.m. Eastern. The session high of $456.50 was also the stock's high for the year to date on that quote page. Volume was running near 3.3 million shares, about twice the 10-day average shown there.

Star Ratings are only one lever in Medicare Advantage economics. Bonus payments, rebates, membership mix, and plan design all still have to clear the competitive and regulatory path into 2028. Humana's filing is careful on that point: actual 2028 Stars revenue per member will depend on how membership and contracts land, and on risk scores, benchmarks, and rebates that are not fixed yet.