Cigna (CI) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

This story originally appeared on Zacks

Cigna (CI) closed the most recent trading day at $214.94, moving +1.72% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.96%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.61%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.04%.

Heading into today, shares of the health insurer had lost 2.94% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector’s loss of 2.85% and the S&P 500’s loss of 0.21% in that time.

Cigna will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Cigna to post earnings of $4.58 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 30.48%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $44.04 billion, up 5.7% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $20.41 per share and revenue of $172.37 billion. These totals would mark changes of +10.62% and +7.69%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Cigna. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.07% higher. Cigna is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note Cigna’s current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 10.35. This represents a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 9.54.

We can also see that CI currently has a PEG ratio of 0.93. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company’s expected earnings growth rate. The Insurance – Multi line was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.08 at yesterday’s closing price.

The Insurance – Multi line industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 199, putting it in the bottom 22% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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Cigna Corporation (CI): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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