Cigna (CI) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Cigna (CI) closed at $282.55 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.78% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.97%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.88%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.24%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the health insurer had lost 2.61% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Finance sector's loss of 9.76% and the S&P 500's loss of 9.93% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Cigna as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $5.68, down 0.87% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $44.87 billion, up 1.25% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $22.98 per share and revenue of $180.34 billion, which would represent changes of +12.26% and +3.6%, respectively, from the prior 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 a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

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 0.15% lower. Cigna is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Cigna's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 12.08. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.01, which means Cigna is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that CI has a PEG ratio of 1.08. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. CI's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1 as of yesterday's close.

The Insurance - Multi line industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 45, which puts it in the top 18% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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