It happened again on Thursday morning, when Cigna Group reported quarterly earnings. The results missed estimates and management’s financial guidance for next year was lower than Wall Street expected.

Cigna forecast annual profit below Wall Street expectations on Thursday and missed estimates for the fourth quarter, as high-cost claims in employer-sponsored plans drove up expenses in its backup insurance product.

Shares of Cigna (NYSE: CI) were dropping Thursday. The leg down comes as the S&P 500 gained 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2%. The insurer reported earnings before the market open, missing certain estimates and offering guidance that disappointed investors.

Wall Street's main indexes rose on Thursday, driven by post-earnings advances in Meta and Tesla, although Microsoft's weak cloud forecast and downbeat results from Cigna dampened investor enthusiasm. Microsoft MSFT.O dropped 4.7% after forecasting disappointing growth in its cloud computing business.

Cigna blamed lower-than-expected fourth-quarter returns on its stop-loss insurance business that insures employers from catastrophically high medical claims.

Fresh off underperforming Wall Street’s expectations in the fourth quarter, Cigna said it would work to lower costs for its customers amid widespread discontent with the healthcare system.

Cigna said its medical loss ratio was 87.9% in Q4 2024, compared to 82.2% in the prior-year quarter. For the full-year 2024, MLR was 83.2%, which was still higher compared to the 81.3% its insurance unit reported in 2023.

Cigna Group closed 23.69% below its 52-week high of $370.83, which the company reached on September 16th.

The plan, called "stop-loss insurance", entails the insurer covering for employers' self-funded plans when their costs surpass a certain threshold due to catastrophic or unexpected medical claims

Cigna reported fourth-quarter revenue of $65.68 billion, beating analyst estimates of $63.36 billion, according to Benzinga Pro. The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.64 per share,

Wall Street experienced varied outcomes with indexes rising due to gains in Meta and Tesla, despite setbacks for Microsoft and Cigna. Meta rose after surpassing revenue estimates, while Tesla remains on track for new EV models.

Check out this morning’s top movers from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly. Invest with Confidence: Follow TipRanks' Top Wall Street