Cigna (CI) Stock Moves -0.72%: What You Should Know

Cigna (CI) closed the most recent trading day at $282.90, moving -0.72% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 0.84% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.36%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.12%.

Heading into today, shares of the health insurer had lost 1.32% over the past month, outpacing the Finance sector's loss of 7.97% and the S&P 500's loss of 10.24% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Cigna as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Cigna to post earnings of $5.68 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 0.87%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $44.87 billion, up 1.25% from the year-ago period.

CI's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $22.98 per share and revenue of $180.34 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +12.26% and +3.6%, respectively.

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. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.15% lower within the past month. 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 12.4. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 9.72, so we one might conclude that Cigna is trading at a premium comparatively.

Meanwhile, CI's PEG ratio is currently 1.11. 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. The Insurance - Multi line was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.06 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 58, which puts it in the top 24% 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.

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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