Depending on your spending habits and lifestyle choices, $1 million may be enough to live a secure retirement. And with the right investing strategy and a long enough time horizon, this is a very achievable amount for an investment portfolio.
Health insurer Molina Healthcare (MOH -0.35%) has demonstrated its capability of being a millionaire-maker stock over the past 20 years. An initial investment of $46,000 in 2003 has compounded at 17.2% annually and would be worth just over $1 million today.
But does the stock still have millionaire-minting potential? And is it currently a buy for growth investors? Let's dig into Molina Heathcare's fundamentals and valuation to address these questions.
Tremendous growth continued in Q4
With over 5 million members of 19 different health plans throughout the U.S., Molina Healthcare is a leader in the government-sponsored health insurance industry (i.e., Medicaid, Medicare, and Marketplace). The health insurer's total revenue surged 11% over the year-ago period to $8.2 billion for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. What was behind the respectable top-line growth?
Molina Healthcare's medical membership edged 1.1% higher year over year in the fourth quarter to almost 5.3 million. As has been the case for years, increasing rates of chronic diseases and an aging population led to organic growth in demand for health insurance -- adding around 310,000 members to its base. This, together with higher health insurance premiums and the acquisition of Affinity Health Plan, fueled double-digit total revenue growth for the company in the latest quarter.
On the bottom line, Molina Healthcare generated $4.10 in non-GAAP (adjusted) diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the fourth quarter. For comparison, this was up a staggering 42.4% over the year-ago period. The company's non-GAAP net margin rocketed 60-plus basis points higher year over year to 2.9% during the quarter. Molina Healthcare's diluted share count was reduced by 0.5% in the quarter from share buybacks. As a result of these elements, the company's adjusted diluted EPS growth well outpaced total revenue growth for the quarter.
As demand for health insurance rises, so too should Molina Healthcare's total revenue and adjusted diluted EPS. That explains how analysts believe that the company's adjusted diluted EPS will grow at a 17.8% annual rate over the next five years. Stacked against the healthcare plans industry average annual earnings growth forecast of 12.5%, this is especially impressive.
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Its financial condition is robust
Molina Healthcare is a health insurer with wonderful prospects. But aside from its promising growth potential, the company also has a strong balance sheet.
Analysts are projecting that Molina Healthcare will carry a net cash balance of $2.3 billion in 2023. For context, this is a massive net cash position when weighed against its market capitalization of $17.1 billion. This basically gives Molina Healthcare the ability to execute a major acquisition or several smaller deals to grow its business even more moving forward.
A growth stock at a bargain-bin valuation
With shares of Molina Healthcare down 8% in the last year, the stock has underperformed the healthcare plans industry average gain of 3% during that time.
Along with surging profits, this has pushed Molina Healthcare's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio down to just 12.8. That is a little below the healthcare plans industry's average forward P/E ratio of 14. For a business with a vastly superior growth profile to its peers, that is a steal of a valuation for growth investors.
Putting Molina Healthcare's double-digit annual earnings growth and undervaluation together, I believe that the company is still capable of making millionaires in the future.
