Free Annual Reports
Cigna Third Quarter Earnings Preview
Tickers in this Article »
CI
Cigna (NYSE:CI) is expected to report increased earnings when it releases its third quarter results on Thursday, November 1, 2012. The consensus estimate is anticipating a profit of $1.37 a share, an increase from last year's $1.20 per share.
Investors should care about a company's quarterly earnings because it shows the state of the business over the past 90 days and provides guidance for the following 90 days. SEE: 12 Things You Need To Know About Financial Statements
What to Expect: Analysts are expecting Cigna to report earnings of $1.37 per share, up 14.2% from a year ago, when the company reported earnings of $1.20 per share.
The consensus estimate has increased in the last 30 days, from $1.36, but it is still less than the estimate of $1.45 from three months ago. For the fiscal year, analysts are expecting earnings of $5.53 per share.
Cigna is expected to beat last year's reported revenue of $5.61 billion and come in at $6.63 billion for the quarter. Revenue of $26.24 billion is expected for the fiscal year.
Company Performance: Revenue for Cigna has been on the rise for four consecutive quarters. It rose 35.4% in the second quarter, 25.4% in the first quarter, 0.6% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 6.6% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.
CI has a P/E ratio of 11.4. A company's price/earnings ratio (P/E ratio) provides a measure of how expensive or cheap a stock is. A high P/E ratio indicates a stock that is expensive, while a low P/E ratio indicates a stock that is cheap. SEE: How To Use The P/E Ratio And PEG To Tell The Future Of A Stock
The stock price has risen from $40.28 on July 31, 2012 to $49.70 over the past quarter. Cigna's best recent streak was when its price gained $2.45 per share between September 26, 2012 and October 4, 2012.
The Competition: Cigna's subsidiaries provide health care and related benefits, including health care products and services, group disability, life, and accident insurance. Most analysts (12 of 17) rate Cigna a buy. They have become increasingly pessimistic about the stock, as the number of buy ratings has dropped slightly over the last three months.
The company's closest competitor in the insurance (accident and health) industry is UnitedHealth (UNH). Analysts are more optimistic about Cigna than about UnitedHealth. Only 14 out of 18 analysts rate the latter a buy.
Investors should care about a company's quarterly earnings because it shows the state of the business over the past 90 days and provides guidance for the following 90 days. SEE: 12 Things You Need To Know About Financial Statements
What to Expect: Analysts are expecting Cigna to report earnings of $1.37 per share, up 14.2% from a year ago, when the company reported earnings of $1.20 per share.
The consensus estimate has increased in the last 30 days, from $1.36, but it is still less than the estimate of $1.45 from three months ago. For the fiscal year, analysts are expecting earnings of $5.53 per share.
Cigna is expected to beat last year's reported revenue of $5.61 billion and come in at $6.63 billion for the quarter. Revenue of $26.24 billion is expected for the fiscal year.
Company Performance: Revenue for Cigna has been on the rise for four consecutive quarters. It rose 35.4% in the second quarter, 25.4% in the first quarter, 0.6% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 6.6% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.
The stock price has risen from $40.28 on July 31, 2012 to $49.70 over the past quarter. Cigna's best recent streak was when its price gained $2.45 per share between September 26, 2012 and October 4, 2012.
The Competition: Cigna's subsidiaries provide health care and related benefits, including health care products and services, group disability, life, and accident insurance. Most analysts (12 of 17) rate Cigna a buy. They have become increasingly pessimistic about the stock, as the number of buy ratings has dropped slightly over the last three months.
The company's closest competitor in the insurance (accident and health) industry is UnitedHealth (UNH). Analysts are more optimistic about Cigna than about UnitedHealth. Only 14 out of 18 analysts rate the latter a buy.
by
Investopedia Staff
Investopedia.com believes that individuals can excel at managing their financial affairs. As such, we strive to provide free educational content and tools to empower individual investors, including thousands of original and objective articles and tutorials on a wide variety of financial topics.
Free Annual Reports
