Cigna up on outlook; Cardinal Health shares fall
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Amid a broad Wall Street selloff, shares of
Cigna (CI) said net income eased to $380 million, or $1.31 a share, down from the $391 million, or $1.43 a share, reported a year ago. Revenue reached $7.46 billion in the latest quarter against the prior year's $5.51 billion.
On an adjusted basis, earnings would have come to $1.49 a share, or 7 cents ahead of the consensus projection among analysts polled by FactSet Research. Quarterly sales also had been projected at $7.22 billion, on average.
The company said it expects full-year adjusted income in a range of $5.25 to $5.60 a share, up from its previous estimate of $5.20 to $5.55 a share. The FactSet-derived consensus had been for $5.51 a share.
Shares of Cigna traded up 4% to $41.86 by session's end, bucking the broader bearish trend gripping U.S. stocks Thursday.
Cigna doesn't appear to be facing the same headwinds that other insurers reported during the quarter, analysts said. This earnings season has buffeted the shares of many managed-care providers due to higher utilization rates, along with uncertainty over federal spending trends.
"Given the multiple earnings reports that have highlighted increasing macro challenges (sharper uptick in outpatient, broadly higher utilization in Medicare Advantage, etc.), we were pleased to see that [Cigna] doesn't seem to be encountering trends they haven't expected in their pricing assumptions," wrote Jefferies & Co. analyst David Windley in a note to clients.
"This, along with the higher earnings per share, should relieve pressure on the stock ... and perhaps the group," he said.
Also Thursday, shares of drug distributor
The pact, awarded Wednesday to rival
Cardinal reported net income of $236 million, or 68 cents a share, up 17% from the $203 million, or 58 cents, earned in the final three months of fiscal 2011. Sales generated by the Dublin, Ohio-based company were $26.76 billion, all but unchanged from a year ago.
The company's adjusted earnings of 73 cents a share came in a penny ahead of the FactSet-compiled consensus.
Meanwhile, shares of
The medical products company beat analyst estimates on earnings for the third quarter ended June 30, and revised higher both its revenue and income outlook for fiscal 2012.
Late Wednesday, SurModics said net income was $3.06 million, or 17 cents a share, down from the $3.84 million, or 22 cents a share, posted in the year-ago third quarter. Sales were $14 million against last year's $13 million. Adjusted earnings would have been 18 cents a share, ahead of the 14-cent consensus from analysts polled by FactSet.
The company also raised its full-year revenue estimate to a range of $51 million to $52 million, up from $47 million to $51 million previously. The earnings outlook for SurModics also was raised, to a range of 56 cents to 59 cents a share, up from 45 to 53 cents a share.
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