3. Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 53
Dividend Yield as of April 22: 1.76%
Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut. It specializes in managed healthcare services, health insurance, life insurance, and pharmacy benefits. Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) offers a dividend yield of 1.76% as of April 22.
On February 28, Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) announced a number of capital deployment priorities for boosting shareholder value and delivering long-term growth. It expects to amass deployable capital worth more than $12 billion in 2022, including $5.4 billion in after-tax proceeds from the previously announced disposal of its international life, accident, and supplemental benefits operations in seven countries. The company returned $1.3 billion in dividends to shareholders in 2021, including share repurchase authorization of $7.7 billion.
Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) reported its Q4 financial results on February 3, posting earnings per share of $4.77, topping analysts’ consensus estimates by $0.06. Revenue for the period climbed 9.62% year-over-year to $45.68 billion, surpassing market predictions by $1.69 billion.
Truist analyst David MacDonald on April 7 raised the price target on Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) to $290 from $275 and kept a Buy rating on the shares after previewing the group’s Q1 results. He remains positive on the underlying demand drivers and attractive tailwinds for the Healthcare Services industry, adding that cash flows remain robust and he sees accelerating M&A activity in the space.
According to Insider Monkey’s Q4 data, 53 hedge funds were long Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI), with collective stakes amounting to $1.92 billion. Andrew Wellington and Jeff Keswin’s Lyrical Asset Management is one of the leading shareholders of the company, with 1.16 million shares worth $267.3 million.
Here is what Davis Opportunity Fund has to say about Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“Healthcare is included in the portfolio both for company-specific reasons, as well as big picture trends. At the company level, we hold select companies in pharmaceuticals, healthcare services and health insurance at attractive valuations. This is at a time when the average age of the U.S. population is fast approaching 40, older than Asia-Pacific and a little younger than the aged populations of Europe and Japan. The number of seniors in the U.S.—i.e., 65 years or older— now surpasses 54 million, or about 15% of the population. Seniors, on average, take a much greater number of medications and account for a large and disproportionate share of healthcare spending, and we expect that trend to continue due to both raw demographics and a proliferation in the number of available treatments and services available now, the latter being driven by innovation and investment in the healthcare industry. Representative holdings in the Fund include Cigna, United Health Group, Viatris and Quest Diagnostics.”
