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Conseco beats 2Q, warns
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August 6, 2001: 6:03 p.m. ET
Insurer and finance company sees lower than expected full-year results
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Conseco Inc. reported a second-quarter profit Monday, reversing a year-earlier loss and edging past Wall Street forecasts, but the insurer and financial services company lowered its earnings guidance for the remainder of the year.
The Indianapolis-based company, which has been shedding units in a reorganization effort, earned $69 million, or 21 cents a share, better than the 20 cents a share forecast of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. It posted a loss of 9 cents a share a year earlier.
Sales rose to $312 million from about $240 million from continuing operations.
The company said stock market weakness is pressuring its annuity business and that without an unexpected turnaround in that business it is looking at earnings per share of 80 to 95 cents a share for the year. That's better than the 49 cents a share it earned in 2000, but slightly below the First Call forecast of 97 cents a share for the year, and the company's earlier guidance of 90 to $1.10 a share.
The earnings report lifted shares of Conseco (CNC: unchanged at $14.20, Research, Estimates) 20 cents in after-hours trading, after the stock closed regular-hours trading unchanged at $14.20.
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The company's last guidance was in February, when it lowered its forecasts for first half of the year but said it expected better-than-forecast results in the second half. Before that warning, First Call's EPS forecast for Conseco in the second quarter stood at 29 cents. 
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Conseco
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