Shares of Cigna Corp. CI, 1.19% gained 0.5% in premarket trading Friday, after the health services company reported first-quarter profit and revenue that rose above expectations, as total customer relationships grew 14% and pharmacy customers increased 28%. Net income was $1.16 billion, or $3.30 a share, compared with $1.18 billion, or $3.15 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share rose to $4.73 from $4.69, beating the FactSet consensus of $4.37.
Revenue grew 6.5% to $40.97 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $40.21 billion. Customer relationships increased to 189.9 million from 167.0 million, as pharmacy customers rose to 101.0 million from 78.8 million. Cigna’s stock has rallied 23.4% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 SPX, 0.72% has advanced 11.9%.