Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Position Trimmed by CENTRAL TRUST Co

CENTRAL TRUST Co reduced its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 18.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,146 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,884 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Centene were worth $613,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Centene in the first quarter valued at $914,080,000. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Centene by 0.4% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,652,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $678,033,000 after purchasing an additional 32,427 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Centene by 0.5% during 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 raised its position in shares of Centene by 60.2% during 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 holdings in shares of Centene by 14.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,113,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $339,042,000 after acquiring an additional 636,683 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Centene from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Centene from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $83.00 to $69.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.17.

Centene Trading Up 4.2 %

NYSE CNC opened at $64.22 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Centene Co. has a 12 month low of $59.77 and a 12 month high of $81.42. The company has a market capitalization of $34.27 billion, a PE ratio of 12.77, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $72.31.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 25th. The company reported $1.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.23. Centene had a net margin of 1.79% and a return on equity of 14.45%. The business had revenue of $42.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $37.91 billion. Research analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.8 EPS 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.