Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Receives $80.92 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $81.31.

CNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Centene from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th.

Insider Transactions at Centene

In other Centene news, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher purchased 17,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $58.14 per share, for a total transaction of $1,000,008.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 486,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,305,284.58. The trade was a 3.66 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Greco bought 17,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $59.75 per share, with a total value of $1,015,750.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 19,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,153,712.75. This trade represents a 736.25 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 45,010 shares of company stock worth $2,660,276. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CNC. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 693.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,490,935 shares during the period. Harris Associates L P lifted its holdings in Centene by 5.7% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,980,932,000 after acquiring an additional 1,420,825 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Centene by 15.4% in the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after acquiring an additional 428,100 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Centene by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,082,000 after acquiring an additional 343,559 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Centene in the third quarter valued at approximately $236,940,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Stock Down 5.3 %

NYSE:CNC opened at $61.36 on Friday. Centene has a twelve month low of $55.03 and a twelve month high of $81.42. The company has a market cap of $30.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a return on equity of 13.32% and a net margin of 1.90%. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Centene will post 6.82 EPS for the current year.

Centene Company 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.