Cigna (CI) Increases Yet Falls Behind Market: What Investors Need to Know
Cigna (CI) ended the recent trading session at $352.63, demonstrating a +0.16% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.63% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.82%.
Heading into today, shares of the health insurer had gained 3.21% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's gain of 0.91% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.76% in that time.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Cigna in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Cigna to post earnings of $6.16 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 13.86%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $56.68 billion, reflecting a 21.96% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $28.34 per share and revenue of $235.12 billion, which would represent changes of +12.95% and +20.37%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Cigna. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. 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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.01% higher. Cigna is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
From a valuation perspective, Cigna is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 12.42. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.12.
We can also see that CI currently has a PEG ratio of 1.08. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. CI's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.13 as of yesterday's close.
The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 194, which puts it in the bottom 24% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Cigna Group (CI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
