Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC Takes Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Granite Bay Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 3,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pinebridge Investments L.P. boosted its position in Centene by 52.4% during the fourth quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 327,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,298,000 after acquiring an additional 112,605 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Centene by 18.7% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 624,944 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,046,000 after buying an additional 98,298 shares in the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP lifted its position in Centene by 435.0% during the first quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 20,052 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,574,000 after buying an additional 16,304 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its position in Centene by 35.8% during the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 28,009 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,857,000 after buying an additional 7,385 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in Centene by 189.6% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 24,162 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,895,000 after buying an additional 15,819 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on CNC. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Centene from $92.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $83.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $78.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Centene from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Centene currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.58.

Centene Trading Down 1.8 %

NYSE:CNC opened at $73.94 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.32. The stock has a market cap of $39.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.48. Centene Co. has a 1 year low of $63.45 and a 1 year high of $81.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.83 billion. Centene had a net margin of 1.79% and a return on equity of 14.45%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.10 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Centene Profile

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.