By Jennifer Hoyt Cummings
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Cigna Corp. (CI) President and Chief Operating Officer David Cordani reiterated at a conference Monday that the health insurer expects to have surplus cash to pursue mergers and acquisitions and/or share buybacks next year.
Cordani, who will be taking over as chief executive of Cigna Jan. 1, said this expectation is based on reasonable performance in the marketplace.
Cigna's priorities for its cash continue to be pursuing organic growth and mergers and acquisitions first, and if those don't pan out, the company will use its cash for buybacks, Cigna spokesman Chris Curran told Dow Jones Newswires.
The company had recently said on a conference call that it hopes to pursue buybacks next year, after not being able to do them in 2009.
Shares of Cigna were recently up 1% to $31.65, while other health insurance stocks were trading lower, with Coventry Health Care Inc. (CVH) down 0.5% to $24.53, as WellPoint Inc. (WLP) lost 0.2% to $53.94.
-By Jennifer Hoyt Cummings, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2474; jennifer.cummings@dowjones.com