Shares of Cigna Corp . (NYSE:CI) rose more than 1% Thursday after the stock was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank. Analysts raised the price target to $370 from $355 per share.
The upgrade follows CI announcing the agreement to sell its MA, Supplemental Benefits, Part D, and CareAllies Business to HCSC for a total transaction value of ~$3.7 billion.
Deutsche Bank believes this can be a "value-unlocking transaction for the company."
"Under the agreement, CI's Evernorth Health Services will continue to be the pharmacy benefit services provider for the Medicare businesses for four years, starting from the closing of the deal," analysts explained.
"HCSC's Blues plans use Prime as its PBM, which as a close alignment with Cigna's ESI," they added. "In early November last year, Cigna started working with an investment bank to explore a potential divesture of its MA business, according to a Reuters report. The announcement finally brings this story with multi-month deal headlines to an end."