Independent Advisor Alliance Acquires Shares of 3,366 Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Independent Advisor Alliance bought a new stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CNC. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. increased its position in Centene by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its position in Centene by 75.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its holdings in Centene by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 956 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intellectus Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 7,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $438,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com lowered Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Argus lowered shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Centene currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.92.

Centene Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Centene stock opened at $59.26 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $29.40 billion, a PE ratio of 9.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59. The business’s fifty day moving average is $60.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.43.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued 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. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current year.

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.