UPDATE 2-Centene sees robust 2024 on commercial insurance business boost

(Adds details on commercial plan memberships in paragraph 2)

April 26 (Reuters) - Centene Corp raised its annual profit forecast and beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit on Friday, helped by higher premiums from its commercial insurance business.

An over 35% jump in memberships in commercial plans, private health insurance offerings for individuals and families, helped cushion the impact from a drop in Medicaid plan members.

Health insurers, especially Centene, have seen a decline in Medicaid memberships intended for people with limited income after many who had signed up under COVID-related relief measures were deemed ineligible in April last year when the pandemic ended.

The insurer earned $7.75 billion in revenue from its commercial plans in the first quarter, up 48% from a year earlier, while memberships in the plans rose to 4.77 million from 3.53 million.

Total Medicaid memberships fell over 18% to 13.3 million from 16.3 million.

Centene's quarterly medical loss ratio, or the percentage of premiums paid out for medical services, that came in at 87.1%, compared with analysts' estimate of 87.09%.

Betting on continued growth in its commercial unit, Centene raised its full-year premium and services revenue forecast to $135.5 billion to $138.5 billion, from $134.5 billion to $137.5 billion previously.

On an adjusted basis, the health insurer now expects annual profit of more than $6.80 per share, compared with its previous forecast of more than $6.70.

Analysts were expecting a profit of $6.78 per share, according to LSEG data.

In the first quarter, Centene earned an adjusted profit of $2.26 per share, above estimates of $2.08 per share. (Reporting by Vaibhav Sadhamta and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)