Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Centene (NYSE:CNC)

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 18,313 put options on the company. This is an increase of 416% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,548 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CNC. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $83.00 to $69.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Centene from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Centene from $98.00 to $97.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Centene presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.58.

Institutional Trading of Centene

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Centene during the 1st quarter valued at $914,080,000. Boston Partners grew its holdings in shares of Centene by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,652,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $678,033,000 after buying an additional 32,427 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Centene by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,491,968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $364,117,000 after buying an additional 25,595 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Centene by 60.2% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,216,486 shares of the company’s stock valued at $409,390,000 after buying an additional 1,959,460 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Centene by 14.2% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,113,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $339,042,000 after buying an additional 636,683 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Stock Performance

CNC stock opened at $69.29 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $74.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.87. Centene has a fifty-two week low of $63.45 and a fifty-two week high of $81.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.98 billion, a PE ratio of 13.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.48.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.44 by ($0.02). Centene had a return on equity of 14.45% and a net margin of 1.79%. The company had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.10 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Centene will post 6.8 EPS 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.