Strs Ohio Sells 78,964 Shares of The Cigna Group (NYSE:CI)

Strs Ohio reduced its stake in The Cigna Group (NYSE:CI) by 47.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 86,207 shares of the health services provider’s stock after selling 78,964 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in The Cigna Group were worth $25,814,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of The Cigna Group by 154,255.6% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,954,841 shares of the health services provider’s stock worth $3,961,117,000 after buying an additional 11,947,096 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of The Cigna Group in the 4th quarter worth $963,542,000. Parnassus Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of The Cigna Group in the 3rd quarter worth $731,041,000. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of The Cigna Group by 13.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,967,363 shares of the health services provider’s stock worth $4,567,783,000 after buying an additional 1,939,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of The Cigna Group by 1,039.4% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 590,063 shares of the health services provider’s stock worth $176,694,000 after purchasing an additional 538,274 shares during the period. 86.99% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of The Cigna Group from $360.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of The Cigna Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $330.00 to $372.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of The Cigna Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $384.00 price objective on shares of The Cigna Group in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective on shares of The Cigna Group in a research report on Wednesday, January 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, The Cigna Group presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Hoeltzel Mary T. Agoglia sold 4,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.48, for a total transaction of $1,608,446.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 2,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $694,668.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Hoeltzel Mary T. Agoglia sold 4,867 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $330.48, for a total transaction of $1,608,446.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 2,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $694,668.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Eric P. Palmer sold 1,017 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $335.26, for a total transaction of $340,959.42. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 45,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,275,786.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 114,144 shares of company stock worth $39,296,330 in the last 90 days. 0.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

The Cigna Group Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE:CI opened at $348.90 on Tuesday. The Cigna Group has a one year low of $240.50 and a one year high of $365.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $102.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $347.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $314.14.

The Cigna Group (NYSE:CI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 2nd. The health services provider reported $6.79 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.54 by $0.25. The Cigna Group had a net margin of 2.64% and a return on equity of 13.59%. The business had revenue of $51.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.91 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.96 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that The Cigna Group will post 28.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The Cigna Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $1.40 per share. This represents a $5.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from The Cigna Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.23. The Cigna Group’s payout ratio is 32.20%.

About The Cigna Group

The Cigna Group, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and related products and services in the United States. Its Evernorth Health Services segment provides a range of coordinated and point solution health services, including pharmacy benefits, home delivery pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, distribution, and care delivery and management solutions to health plans, employers, government organizations, and health care providers.