Mather Group LLC. Trims Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Mather Group LLC. lowered its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 32.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,688 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,266 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Centene were worth $163,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CNC. Czech National Bank raised its stake in shares of Centene by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 107,157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,067,000 after buying an additional 5,463 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Centene during the 3rd quarter valued at about $201,000. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Centene by 83.9% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 47,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,582,000 after purchasing an additional 21,700 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of Centene by 285.9% in the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 4,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $373,000 after purchasing an additional 3,674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Centene by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC now owns 4,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $330,000 after purchasing an additional 497 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com lowered Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group upgraded Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Centene currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.31.

Centene Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Centene stock opened at $58.95 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $29.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.00. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $55.03 and a 1-year high of $81.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a return on equity of 13.32% and a net margin of 1.90%. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Centene

In other news, Director Thomas Greco bought 17,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $59.75 per share, with a total value of $1,015,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,309 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director H James Dallas bought 1,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $59.01 per share, for a total transaction of $99,903.93. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99,903.93. This trade represents a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 40,893 shares of company stock worth $2,409,962. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.