Cigna Corporation [NYSE: CI] loss -0.96% on the last trading session, reaching $254.03 price per share at the time. The company report on March 1, 2023 that AM Best Assigns Issue Credit Ratings to The Cigna Group’s New Senior Unsecured Notes.
AM Best has assigned a Long-Term Issue Credit Rating of “bbb” (Good) to the $700 million, 5.685% senior unsecured notes due March 15, 2026, and the $800 million, 5.4% senior unsecured notes due March 15, 2033, recently issued by The Cigna Group (Cigna) (headquartered in Bloomfield, CT) [NYSE:CI]. The outlook assigned to these Credit Ratings (ratings) is positive. The existing ratings of Cigna and its subsidiaries are unchanged.
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The proceeds from the issuance will be used to pay down upcoming debt maturities and for general corporate purposes. Cigna has close to $3 billion of senior unsecured notes coming due throughout 2023. Cigna’s financial leverage was 40.9% at year-end 2022, which is in line with its peers. Financial leverage has moderated substantially over the past several years following the $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts in late 2018. Financial leverage is expected to increase slightly after the new debt issuance but will return to the 40% range as maturities are paid. Cigna’s earnings before interest and taxes interest coverage improved in 2022 to over 8.2 times compared with 6.5 times in 2021 due to stronger earnings. Cigna’s earnings from health care operations grew 13% in 2022 compared with 2021 as medical cost ratio posted a 230 basis points improvement mainly driven by lower COVID-19 claims and pricing initiatives. Non-regulated earnings at the Evernorth segment improved by 5% supported by revenue growth. The Evernorth segment comprised about 75% of revenues, and 53% of earnings from operations for the enterprise-reducing pressure for dividends form the insurance subsidiaries. The dividends from Cigna insurance entities declined to $1.9 billon in 2022 from $2.8 billion and $2.3 billion in 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Cigna Corporation represents 300.88 million in outstanding shares, while the company has a total market value of $74.40 billion with the latest information. CI stock price has been found in the range of $252.00 to $257.355.
If compared to the average trading volume of 1.71M shares, CI reached a trading volume of 3023078 in the most recent trading day, which is why market watchdogs consider the stock to be active.
Here is what top equities market gurus are saying about Cigna Corporation [CI]:
Based on careful and fact-backed analyses by Wall Street experts, the current consensus on the target price for CI shares is $349.13 per share. Analysis on target price and performance of stocks is usually carefully studied by market experts, and the current Wall Street consensus on CI stock is a recommendation set at 2.40. This rating represents a strong Buy recommendation, on the scale from 1 to 5, where 5 would mean strong sell, 4 represents Sell, 3 is Hold, and 2 indicates Buy.
Wells Fargo have made an estimate for Cigna Corporation shares, keeping their opinion on the stock as Equal Weight, with their previous recommendation back on January 03, 2023. While these analysts kept the previous recommendation, Morgan Stanley raised their target price from $318 to $347. The new note on the price target was released on November 23, 2022, representing the official price target for Cigna Corporation stock. Previously, the target price had yet another raise to $370, while Raymond James analysts kept a Outperform rating on CI stock. On July 14, 2022, analysts decreased their price target for CI shares from 330 to 271.
The Average True Range (ATR) for Cigna Corporation is set at 6.92, with the Price to Sales ratio for CI stock in the period of the last 12 months amounting to 0.41. The Price to Book ratio for the last quarter was 1.70, with the Price to Cash per share for the same quarter was set at 20.23. Price to Free Cash Flow for CI in the course of the last twelve months was 12.45.
Trading performance analysis for CI stock
Cigna Corporation [CI] fell into the red zone at the end of the last week, falling into a negative trend and dropping by -6.07. With this latest performance, CI shares dropped by -13.03% in over the last four-week period, additionally sinking by -8.50% over the last 6 months – not to mention a rise of 4.26% in the past year of trading.
Overbought and oversold stocks can be easily traced with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), where an RSI result of over 70 would be overbought, and any rate below 30 would indicate oversold conditions. An RSI rate of 50 would represent a neutral market momentum. The current RSI for CI stock in for the last two-week period is set at 29.00, with the RSI for the last a single of trading hit 27.44, and the three-weeks RSI is set at 30.72 for Cigna Corporation [CI]. The present Moving Average for the last 50 days of trading for this stock 289.23, while it was recorded at 257.82 for the last single week of trading, and 294.13 for the last 200 days.
Cigna Corporation [CI]: A deeper dive into fundamental analysis
Operating Margin for any stock indicates how profitable investing would be, and Cigna Corporation [CI] shares currently have an operating margin of +4.47. Cigna Corporation’s Net Margin is presently recorded at +3.70.
Return on Total Capital for CI is now 10.17, given the latest momentum, and Return on Invested Capital for the company is 8.76. Return on Equity for this stock inclined to 14.50, with Return on Assets sitting at 4.58. When it comes to the capital structure of this company, Cigna Corporation [CI] has a Total Debt to Total Equity ratio set at 70.57. Additionally, CI Total Debt to Total Capital is recorded at 41.37, with Total Debt to Total Assets ending up at 22.63. Long-Term Debt to Equity for the company is recorded at 63.65, with the Long-Term Debt to Total Capital now at 37.31.
Reflecting on the efficiency of the workforce at the company, Cigna Corporation [CI] managed to generate an average of $93,520 per employee.
Cigna Corporation [CI]: An earnings per share (EPS) analysis
The progress of the company may be observed through the prism of EPS growth rate, while Wall Street analysts are focusing on predicting the 5-year EPS growth rate for CI. When it comes to the mentioned value, analysts are expecting to see the 5-year EPS growth rate for Cigna Corporation go to 11.27%.
An analysis of insider ownership at Cigna Corporation [CI]
There are presently around $67,486 million, or 91.60% of CI stock, in the hands of institutional investors. The top three institutional holders of CI stocks are: BLACKROCK INC. with ownership of 27,471,956, which is approximately 3.294% of the company’s market cap and around 0.10% of the total institutional ownership; VANGUARD GROUP INC, holding 25,583,766 shares of the stock with an approximate value of $6.56 billion in CI stocks shares; and FMR LLC, currently with $4.17 billion in CI stock with ownership of nearly 0.5% of the company’s market capitalization.
Positions in Cigna Corporation stocks held by institutional investors increased at the end of Friday and at the time of the Friday reporting period, where 704 institutional holders increased their position in Cigna Corporation [NYSE:CI] by around 13,007,633 shares. Additionally, 682 investors decreased positions by around 22,794,217 shares, while 279 investors held positions by with 227,303,261 shares. The mentioned changes placed institutional holdings at 263,105,111 shares, according to the latest SEC report filing. CI stock had 189 new institutional investments in for a total of 4,125,004 shares, while 96 institutional investors sold positions of 5,285,862 shares during the same period.