Cigna (CI) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Cigna (CI) closed at $343.94 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.49% move from the prior day. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.12%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.61%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 1.54%.
The the stock of health insurer has risen by 1.49% in the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 2.49% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.06%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Cigna in its upcoming earnings disclosure. On that day, Cigna is projected to report earnings of $6.16 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 13.86%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $56.68 billion, indicating a 21.96% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $28.34 per share and revenue of $235.12 billion, indicating changes of +12.95% and +20.37%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Cigna. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.01% higher. Cigna is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
In terms of valuation, Cigna is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 12.08. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 17.03 for its industry.
One should further note that CI currently holds a PEG ratio of 1.05. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Medical - HMOs industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.13.
The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 170, this industry ranks in the bottom 33% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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Cigna Group (CI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
