Centene (NYSE:CNC) Lowered to Buy Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Centene (NYSE:CNC) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Argus downgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 target price (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on shares of Centene from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.31.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of CNC stock opened at $58.51 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The company has a market cap of $29.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.45. Centene has a one year low of $55.03 and a one year high of $81.42. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $61.28 and a 200-day moving average of $67.06.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a return on equity of 13.32% and a net margin of 1.90%. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Centene will post 6.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher bought 17,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $58.14 per share, for a total transaction of $1,000,008.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 486,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,305,284.58. This trade represents a 3.66 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Greco purchased 17,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $59.75 per share, for a total transaction of $1,015,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 19,309 shares in the company, valued at $1,153,712.75. This trade represents a 736.25 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired 40,893 shares of company stock valued at $2,409,962 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Centene by 693.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,346,000 after acquiring an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,980,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,825 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Centene during the fourth quarter valued at about $53,736,000. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Centene by 15.4% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,126,000 after buying an additional 428,100 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its position in Centene by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,082,000 after acquiring an additional 343,559 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Centene

Centene Corporation operates as a healthcare enterprise that provides programs and services to under-insured and uninsured families, commercial organizations, and military families in the United States. The company operates through Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other segments. The Medicaid segment offers health plan coverage, including medicaid expansion, aged, blind, disabled, children’s health insurance program, foster care, medicare-medicaid plans, long-term services and support.