DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Acquires 30,146 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 13.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 254,411 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,146 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Centene were worth $18,718,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 84,741.9% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 225,379,868 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,483,403,000 after acquiring an additional 225,114,221 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 8.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,788,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $605,351,000 after acquiring an additional 704,684 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Centene during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $713,235,000. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 7.3% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,023,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $414,918,000 after acquiring an additional 408,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 3.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,288,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $364,253,000 after acquiring an additional 187,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group upped their price target on Centene from $72.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 21st. Barclays assumed coverage on Centene in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $101.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $85.00 price target (down previously from $92.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Centene presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $85.08.

Centene Stock Up 0.3 %

CNC stock opened at $72.99 on Tuesday. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $60.83 and a 1-year high of $81.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $77.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $74.44. The stock has a market cap of $39.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.38.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.02. Centene had a return on equity of 14.26% and a net margin of 1.75%. The firm had revenue of $39.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.86 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total transaction of $900,840.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 235,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,668,850.55. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total transaction of $900,840.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 235,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,668,850.55. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Lori Jean Robinson sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.41, for a total value of $774,100.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $886,731.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.