TriCare Falls Shy of Mark; Stock Dives : Market: Occupational health care firm’s per-share earnings fall 2 cents short of projection, resulting in a 34.7% nose dive in their value.

Shares of TriCare Inc. plunged Thursday--losing a third of their value--after the occupational health services company announced that it narrowly missed earnings estimates.

“Our stock just got trashed,” said Stephen F. Bullock, president and chief executive officer of the Irvine-based company. “. . . It is a gross overreaction. They just pounded the stock.”

Investors were also uncertain over proposed reforms in the state’s workers’ compensation system, as well as the impact of the recession on medical care, analysts said.

Early in the day, the company announced that it expected earnings of 50 cents per share--a company record--for the fiscal year ended May 31. That was two cents lower than analysts had predicted. The company said that it would release full financial details on its revenue and profits in mid-July.

Still, the preliminary results were enough to send TriCare shares falling 34.7% in over-the-counter trading. On volume more than 15 times the daily average, the price of stock closed $3.125 lower at $5.875.

“It’s always somewhat curious about our industry when a company reports strong earnings growth, but it’s not as great as expected, and the stock declines to that magnitude,” said Paul W. Brown, an analyst with Volpe, Welty & Co., an investment research firm in San Francisco.

In fiscal 1991, TriCare reported earnings of $2.4 million, or 41 cents per share, on revenue of $36.6 million.

TriCare provides evaluation, treatment and rehabilitation for Californians with workplace injuries. But the downturn in the state’s economy cut into fourth-quarter profits more than the company expected, Bullock said.

Analysts say that shareholders have also been worried over a potential overhaul of the state’s workers’ compensation system. The changes are expected to include more cost controls and changes in payment guidelines.

Although state lawmakers have discussed reforms, “nobody knows what they are going to be,” Bullock said. “People get nervous when they don’t know what lawmakers are going to do.”

After the company’s earnings announcement, analysts began revising estimates of TriCare’s financial performance for fiscal 1993. Brown now estimates earnings of 58 cents per share next year, compared to an earlier prediction of 67 cents per share.

Overall, Wall Street had been expecting earnings growth of 25% to 30% in fiscal 1993, Bullock said. The company now estimates growth at about 20%, he said.

TriCare began selling stock to the public in 1990 at $6.50 a share; the company raised $10.4 million in its initial offering. The stock price, swept up in a health-care investing frenzy last year, traded as high as $15.63 a share in December.

Bullock said that investors called his office all day Thursday as the stock price fell.

“They just wanted to know what was going on,” he said. “. . . We recognized that the earnings were slightly lower than expected. We wanted to make that announcement.”

TriCare’s Stock Stumbles Wall Street did not react kindly to news that TriCare Inc. did not meet its earnings projection. The Irvine-based company’s stock fell nearly 35% Thursday, losing $3.38 a share. Month / Stock Price* June, 1990: $6.00 Thursday’s close: 5.88 Quarterly Profit Since fiscal 1990, TriCare’s earnings have nearly tripled. The company’s fiscal year ends May 31. Profit in thousands of dollars. Quarter / Profit First Quarter, 1990: $362,000 Third Quarter, 1992: $856,000 Source: Dow Jones News Retrieval Service