01:45 PM EDT, 05/05/2025 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lift our 12-month target to $392 from $304, 13.2x our 2025 EPS view, a premium to CI's historical due to the timely portfolio shift toward more commercial exposure. We trim our 2025 EPS estimate to $29.67 from $30.58 and 2026's to $33.00 from $35.09. Q1 EPS of $6.74 beat consensus by $0.39, as revenue grew 14% Y/Y driven by strong performance in Evernorth (+16%) due to specialty pharmacy growth. Cigna Healthcare saw higher premium rates but was -4% in operating income due to an increased MCR of 82.2%, up from 79.9% Y/Y, from higher stop loss medical costs and the timing of the sale of CI's Medicare business to HCSC (March 19). 2025 EPS guidance was lifted by $0.10 to "at least $29.60," demonstrating confidence in the growth strategy. We believe selling the Medicare business will be EPS accretive in 2025 and reduces CI's exposure to future federal health care spending cuts relative to CI's peer group, which is why we upgrade our rating despite our view that higher stop loss costs will continue.