Shares of Cigna Group
CI,
shot up 4% toward a 13-month high in premarket trading Friday, after the health care services company reported a fourth-quarter earnings beat and raised its dividend by 14%, as pharmacy and medical customers climbed. Net income came in at $2 billion, or $3.49 a share, after $1.53 billion, or $3.91 a share, in the year-go period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose to $6.79 from $5.02 to beat the FactSet consensus of $6.54. Revenue grew 11.7% to $51.11 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $48.9 billion. Pharmacy customers increased 5% to 98.6 million and medical customers rose 10% to 19.8 million, while customer relationships fell 7.7% to 164.4 million, due to the nonrenewal of a supplemental behavioral coverage contract with New York Life. Separately, the company raised its quarterly dividend to $1.40 a share from $1.23 a share. Based on Thursday’s stock closing price of $307.32, the new annual dividend rate implies a dividend yield of 1.82%, compared with the implied yield for the S&P 500
SPX,
of 1.44%.
