Vontobel Holding Ltd. Decreases Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,335 shares of the company’s stock after selling 249 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Centene were worth $703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Centene during the first quarter worth $914,080,000. Capital International Investors grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Centene by 22.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,461,517 shares of the company’s stock worth $295,799,000 after purchasing an additional 832,318 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 636,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its stake in Centene by 42.3% during the second quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 1,400,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $92,838,000 after acquiring an additional 416,003 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Centene from $92.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 15th. TD Cowen boosted their price target on Centene from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Centene from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $78.00 target price on shares of Centene in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their target price on Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 29th. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.58.

Centene Trading Down 1.6 %

CNC opened at $62.02 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $33.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.33, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.48. Centene Co. has a 12 month low of $61.62 and a 12 month high of $81.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $74.44 and a 200 day moving average of $72.69.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.10 earnings per share. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Centene Co. 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.