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 Group shares slumped after the health insurer reported cost pressures from surprisingly high catastrophic medical claims that are likely to persist.Most Read from BloombergManhattan’s Morning Co
Shares of The Cigna Group fell more than 10% on Thursday morning, hitting intraday lows not seen since early January, following a quarterly profit miss. Fourth-quarter (Q4) adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $6.
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.
Witty's comments came during the company's first earnings call since the killing of Brian Thompson, the CEO of the company's insurance arm UnitedHealthcare.
Between 2017 and 2022, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, Cigna’s Express Scripts and CVS Health’s CVS Caremark marked up their prices by hundreds — and in some cases, thousands — of percent, resulting in $7.3 billion in revenue above cost.
But high medical costs contributed to results that disappointed Wall Street, and the company’s stock fell on the news that it had made less than analysts expected.
After UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death in December, law enforcement records show a burst of police activity at the homes of health executives.