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

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In the latest trading session, Cigna (CI - Free Report) closed at $275.33, marking a +0.55% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.37% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.26%.

Coming into today, shares of the health insurer had gained 9.64% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector gained 3.13%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.31%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Cigna as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $6.03, down 3.05% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $47.13 billion, up 3.74% from the year-ago period.

CI's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $24.81 per share and revenue of $188.88 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +6.62% and +4.56%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Cigna should also be noted by investors. 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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.08% higher. Cigna is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Cigna is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 11.04. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 8.73, which means Cigna is trading at a premium to the group.

We can also see that CI currently has a PEG ratio of 0.99. 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. The Insurance - Multi line was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.14 at yesterday's closing price.

The Insurance - Multi line industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 74, which puts it in the top 30% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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