Ritholtz Wealth Management Raises Stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Ritholtz Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,202 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Centene were worth $316,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Centene during the 1st quarter worth $914,080,000. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Centene by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,652,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $678,033,000 after buying an additional 32,427 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position 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 worth $364,117,000 after buying an additional 25,595 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position 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 worth $409,390,000 after buying an additional 1,959,460 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position 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 worth $339,042,000 after buying an additional 636,683 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $83.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Centene from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Centene from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Seven 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Centene has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.58.

Centene Stock Up 1.2 %

CNC opened at $69.29 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $74.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.87. The company has a market cap 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 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 posted 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 business had revenue of $39.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.83 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 14.45% and a net margin of 1.79%. 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 posted $2.10 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current 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.