Thoughts Pre-Investor Day: Looking for Signals on Cigna's Future

Ahead of Cigna's September 30th Investor Day, we offer a few quick thoughts on what we expect Cigna and new CEO Brian Evanko to address. This investor day strikes us as a topical one. With CI's new rebate-free model unveiled slightly less than a year ago and transition work underway, we see this as an opportunity for the company to update investors on the progress made, provide more detail on the future state of the PBM industry, and explain how that translates into its growth outlook. We expect the strategy to be relatively aligned with that of Evanko's predecessor, and therefore we don't anticipate any broad changes in the company's strategy. The ~60% of operating income that Cigna derives from Evernorth differentiates its earnings profile from much of managed care, which could be a positive in periods of MCO uncertainty. We remain Overweight and constructive, expecting investors to appreciate the durable exposure to specialty growth, the commercial market and strong cash flow genera