Cigna has raised its full-year earnings target, after revealing considerably favourable results for the third quarter of 2019.

For Q3 2019, Cigna reported that its services sales leapt to US$24.88 billion, compared to US$1.11 billion in Q3 2018. The health insurance company has credited this profit boost to its US$52 billion acquisition of pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts last year.

Cigna is projecting earnings to rise at a long-term rate of 10% to 13% in 2020, thanks to growing revenue from the health services unit that Express Scripts’ operations are now a part of.

In its quarterly report, Cigna also reported its medical care ratio, comparing the amount it spent on medical claims with income from premiums, which increased to 80.5%, beating estimates of 80.86%.

The company’s total revenue more than tripled to US$38.56 billion.

Due to its significant quarterly profit results, Cigna raised its forecast for 2019 adjusted income from operations to between US$16.80 and US$17 per share, from US$16.60 to US$16.90.

Reuters reported that as Cigna added more customers and raised premiums, revenue from its US health insurance business jumped nearly 12% to US$9.15 billion.