Cigna Packs Healthy Punch As Q1 Beat Sends Shares Higher, Analysts Raise Targets

Shares of Cigna Group CI rose in early Monday trading after the company announced upbeat first-quarter results on Friday.

Here are some key analyst takeaways.

• Guggenheim Securities analyst Jason Cassorla maintained a Buy rating on the stock.
• Piper Sandler analyst Jessica Tassan maintained an Overweight rating, while raising the price target from $348 to $374.

Check out other analyst stock ratings.

Guggenheim Securities: Cigna reported its first-quarter earnings at $6.74 per share, beating consensus of $6.35 per share. The company’s revenues were "well ahead of expectations, particularly within Evernorth," Cassorla said. Evernorth revenues grew by around 16% year-on-year to $53.68 billion, topping consensus of $50.3 billion, while Healthcare revenues rose 9% to $14.48 billion, surpassing consensus of $12.15 billion, he added.

Management raised the full-year earnings guidance by 10 cents per share. "Consensus comparisons are difficult due to timing related to the Medicare divestiture, but the lift in Healthcare pre-tax earnings guide against the delay in Medicare sale (runs at higher MLR) vs company expectations suggests favorable cost trend development for remaining businesses," he wrote.

Piper Sandler: Cigna's earnings beat was led by Cigna Healthcare, Tassan said. Cigna Healthcare's MLR (medical loss ratio) came in at 82.2%, better than expectations of around 83%, despite headwinds from the timing of the Medicare Advantage sale to HCSC, which suggests that "trends in the continuing businesses were considerably better than forecast," she added.

The analyst stated that the raised guidance for Cigna Healthcare looks conservative based on the trends in the first quarter and utilization so far this year.

"Guidance called for 55.0% of Cigna Healthcare operating income in 1H25, with slightly more than half occurring in 1Q25," she added.

CI Price Action: Shares of Cigna had risen by 0.13% to $334.33 at the time of publication on Monday.

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