On August 5, Clover Health Investments Corp. (NASDAQ:CLOV) reported second-quarter 2026 results that turned a year-ago loss into real profit. GAAP net income came in at $28 million, a $39 million swing from the $10.6 million loss posted in the same quarter last year. Medicare Advantage membership climbed to 157,309, up 48% year over year, and the company raised its full-year guidance across every major line item. For a stock that has spent years chasing profitability, this quarter reads like a turning point.
A Profit Machine Emerges
The headline number is the $28 million in GAAP net income for the quarter, but the six-month picture tells the same story with more weight behind it: $55.3 million in net income through the first half of 2026, compared to an $11.9 million loss over the same stretch last year. Revenue reached $743.2 million in the quarter, up 55.6% year over year, and consolidated gross profit rose 53.6% to $153.0 million. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled, jumping 139.2% to $40.9 million from $17.1 million a year earlier, which means profitability is scaling faster than revenue itself.
Clover backed those numbers by raising its 2026 outlook on every front. Full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance moved up to $70 million to $85 million from a prior range of $50 million to $70 million, and GAAP net income guidance rose to $20 million to $35 million from $0 million to $20 million. The company also closed the quarter with $443.0 million in cash and investments, up 13.8% year over year, giving it room to keep funding growth. CEO Andrew Toy pointed to the Clover Assistant platform reaching more physicians and members as the engine behind “better health outcomes” alongside the growth, while Interim CFO Clay Thornton tied the improving cohort economics to the company retaining more of that value under its full-risk model heading into 2027.
Growth Still Costs Real Money
The same filing shows that scaling a Medicare Advantage insurer is not cheap. Insurance net medical claims incurred rose 56.1% year over year to $615.4 million, tracking almost in step with revenue growth. The insurance benefits expense ratio, which measures how much of premium revenue goes toward paying medical claims, sat at 87.6% for the quarter, only 80 basis points better than a year ago, and the six-month figure improved by just 20 basis points. That means the cost of caring for members has barely budged as a share of revenue, even as the top line surged.
Spending on overhead grew too. Salaries, benefits, and general and administrative expenses rose 13.3% year over year to $124.4 million, while the adjusted version of that same cost line jumped 35.9% to $112.1 million. And even after the guidance raise, projected full-year GAAP net income of $20 million to $35 million is modest against total revenue guidance of $2.92 billion to $3.00 billion, a thin margin for a business still proving it can convert scale into durable profit.
Wall Street Keeps Buying In
Hedge fund ownership of Clover Health rose from 18 funds to 24 in the most recent quarter, a sign that institutional conviction is building rather than fading. Short interest sits at 6.23% of float, a moderate level that points to real but not overwhelming skepticism. As of September 2, the forward P/E of 81.97 shows investors are pricing in a lot of future earnings growth, which raises the stakes for Clover to keep hitting the guidance it just raised.
The Next Test Is 2027
Clover Health’s second quarter shows a company that has crossed into GAAP profitability while still growing membership at a pace few Medicare Advantage insurers can match. The bull case rests on that combination continuing to compound as more cohorts mature under the Clover Assistant model. The bear case rests on medical costs and overhead still rising in dollar terms even as ratios inch down, leaving little room for the thin net income guidance to absorb a setback.
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