Cigna Stock Suffers Another Round of Bear Notes

CI has shed 16.3% since January

Health insurance name Cigna Corp (NYSE:CI) is down 0.8% at $159 in this morning's trading, suffering after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to "buy" from "conviction buy." The firm's Stephen Tanal shared similar concerns of analysts that responded to the company's first-quarter report yesterday, expressing worry over Cigna's pharmacy benefits profitability following its acquisition of Express Scripts. Goldman also slashed its price target to $200 from $215, while Leerink followed suit with a cut to $200, and RBC gave a less harsh outlook of $231.

On the charts, Cigna shares have been on a long-term downtrend, already 16.3% lower year-to-date. Despite touching an 11-month high of $226.28 in December, pressure from the 40-day and 60-day moving averages sent the health insurer to a two-year low of $141.98 on April 17.

Circling back to analyst outlook, such a bearish theme is unusual of Cigna stock. Specifically, 89% of the firms covering CI sport "buy" or "strong buy" recommendations. A handful of price-target cuts and downgrades may have already been in store, though, with the security's average 12-month price target of $226.17 showing a more than 42% upside to current levels.