Shares of Centene Corp. stock rose 9 percent today in the wake of a favorable earnings report and a conference call with Wall Street analysts in which the company forecast higher revenues next year than previously anticipated.

An earnings report for the Clayton-based firm, whose primary business is to manage Medicaid health care services for the poor, indicated that its sales rose 16 percent to $1.3 billion in the third quarter.

Increased premium and service revenues helped Centene raise profits in the third quarter. It reported a net income of $29.0 million for the third quarter, or 55 cents per share, compared to $22.7 million, or 44 cents, a year ago.

"We continue to see a pipeline filled with an abundance of growth opportunities," Centene's chairman and chief executive Michael Neidorff told securities analysts this morning during a telephone conference call.

He said the company expects to generate  more than $7 billion in revenues in 2012, which is considerably more than the $6.7 billion that analysts polled by Bloomberg had anticipated.

Neidorff and his senior executives said it was a strong year for Centene, which won a new Medicaid contract in Kentucky and expanded its operations in Texas. 

Centene closed Tuesday at $31.74 per share, up from $29.07 at Monday's close of the New York Stock Exchange.

Bloomberg contributed to this report.