Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Receives $79.92 Consensus PT from Analysts

Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $79.92.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CNC. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of Centene stock opened at $58.06 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.30, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $60.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.18. Centene has a 52 week low of $55.03 and a 52 week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Centene will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Centene

In other news, Director Thomas Greco bought 17,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,153,712.75. This trade represents a 736.25 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director H James Dallas purchased 1,693 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $59.01 per share, for a total transaction of $99,903.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,693 shares in the company, valued at $99,903.93. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 23,693 shares of company stock worth $1,409,954. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Centene

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CNC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,536,167,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Centene by 42.8% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,742,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $469,053,000 after acquiring an additional 2,319,952 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its position in Centene by 1,788.1% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 2,245,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,126,582 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Centene by 21.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $639,450,000 after acquiring an additional 1,884,358 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Centene by 91.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,770,426 shares of the company’s stock worth $228,414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,802,265 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Centene Company 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.