It happened again on Thursday morning, when Cigna Group reported quarterly earnings. The results missed estimates and management’s financial guidance for next year was lower than Wall Street expected.
Cigna forecast annual profit below Wall Street expectations on Thursday and missed estimates for the fourth quarter, as high-cost claims in employer-sponsored plans drove up expenses in its backup insurance product.
Shares of Cigna ( CI -8.00%) were dropping Thursday. The stock was down 8.4% as of 1:20 p.m. ET but had lost as much as 11.3% earlier in the day. The leg down comes as the S&P 500 gained 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2%.
Wall Street's main indexes rose on Thursday, driven by post-earnings advances in Meta and Tesla, although Microsoft's weak cloud forecast and downbeat results from Cigna dampened investor enthusiasm. Microsoft MSFT.O dropped 4.7% after forecasting disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.
Cigna blamed lower-than-expected fourth-quarter returns on its stop-loss insurance business that insures employers from catastrophically high medical claims.
The plan, called "stop-loss insurance", entails the insurer covering for employers' self-funded plans when their costs surpass a certain threshold due to catastrophic or unexpected medical claims
Shares of Cigna Group slid after the health insurer warned that higher health-care costs in one insurance unit weighed on profitability. Insurers saw profit margins soar in the pandemic as insurees sought out fewer discretionary medical services.
Fresh off underperforming Wall Street’s expectations in the fourth quarter, Cigna said it would work to lower costs for its customers amid widespread discontent with the healthcare system.
Cigna reported fourth-quarter revenue of $65.68 billion, beating analyst estimates of $63.36 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.64 per share,
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Canada's main stock index rose more than 1% to trade near a record high on Thursday, lifted by mining and technology shares, as investors cheered earnings from some of the big tech megacaps on Wall Street.
US stock indices advanced on Thursday, led by post-earnings gains in Meta Platforms and Tesla. At 10:01 am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 102.06 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 44,815.58, the S&P 500 gained 28.