Cigna stock gains after big profit beat, upbeat full-year outlook

Shares of Cigna Corp.
CI,
+5.88%
gained 0.2% in premarket trading Friday, after the health care services company reported first-quarter profit and revenue that rose above expectations, and provided and upbeat full-year earnings outlook. Net income rose to $1.18 billion, or $3.68 a share, from $1.16 billion, or $3.30 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $6.01 was well above the FactSet consensus of $5.18. Total revenue grew 7.4% to $44.01 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $43.39 billion, as pharmacy revenue increased 9.5% to $30.70 billion and premiums rose 1.4% to $10.36 billion. Total customer relationships increased 7.2% to 190.37 million, while total pharmacy customers rose 6.4% to 107.44 million. For 2022, the company expects adjusted EPS of “at least” $22.60, above the FactSet consensus of $22.48. For the company’s Evernorth and Cigna Healthcare business segments, the company didn’t provide net revenue in its press release but continued to provide adjusted revenue, which a metric that does not conform with SEC rules, experts say. The stock has rallied 9.8% year to date through Thursday, while the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF
XLV,
-0.31%
has declined 7.6% and the S&P 500
SPX,
-0.57%
has dropped 13.0%.