By Catherine Dunn
The Cigna Group elicited plenty of questions from Wall Street analysts when it announced a big shift to its pharmacy benefits business model last fall, by planning to go "rebate free." But heading into its first-quarter earnings results on Thursday, the company may find it has done enough heavy lifting to explain the change.
That's in large part because, in February, Cigna's Express Scripts was the first of three major pharmacy-benefit managers, known as PBMs, to reach a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission over insulin pricing litigation. No liability was admitted.
The settlement terms reflected the previously announced rebate-free model and helped Wall Street make better sense of the transition to a new way of generating revenue in a significant business line.
"We don't expect too many surprises with CI's 1Q26 earnings print, with likely inline cost trends / MLR on pricing cushions and updates on the progress so far with the company's rebate-free PBM model flip," said a preview note from Guggenheim Securities, referencing an acronym for the company's medical loss ratio.
Shares are up nearly 5% this year as of Wednesday's close.
Wall Street expects adjusted earnings per share of $7.60, up from $6.74 during the same quarter a year ago, according to FactSet.
The consensus estimate for quarterly revenue lands at $66.29 billion versus $65.45 billion the same period last year.
Cigna is in the middle of a CEO change, with current Chief Operating Officer Brian Evanko set to replace chief executive David Cordani when he retires July 1.
Write to Catherine Dunn at catherine.dunn@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 29, 2026 17:39 ET (21:39 GMT)
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