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Is Cigna (CI) a Great Value Stock Right Now?

While the proven Zacks Rank places an emphasis on earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find strong stocks, we also know that investors tend to develop their own individual strategies. With this in mind, we are always looking at value, growth, and momentum trends to discover great companies.

Of these, perhaps no stock market trend is more popular than value investing, which is a strategy that has proven to be successful in all sorts of market environments. Value investors use fundamental analysis and traditional valuation metrics to find stocks that they believe are being undervalued by the market at large.

Zacks has developed the innovative Style Scores system to highlight stocks with specific traits. For example, value investors will be interested in stocks with great grades in the "Value" category. When paired with a high Zacks Rank, "A" grades in the Value category are among the strongest value stocks on the market today.

Cigna (CI) is a stock many investors are watching right now. CI is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy), as well as an A grade for Value.

We also note that CI holds a PEG ratio of 0.74. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. CI's PEG compares to its industry's average PEG of 1.19. CI's PEG has been as high as 1.04 and as low as 0.60, with a median of 0.87, all within the past year.

Value investors also use the P/S ratio. The P/S ratio is is calculated as price divided by sales. This is a popular metric because sales are harder to manipulate on an income statement, so they are often considered a better performance indicator. CI has a P/S ratio of 0.39. This compares to its industry's average P/S of 0.74.

These are only a few of the key metrics included in Cigna's strong Value grade, but they help show that the stock is likely undervalued right now. When factoring in the strength of its earnings outlook, CI looks like an impressive value stock at the moment.


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