Centene (NYSE:CNC) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Centene (NYSE:CNC) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Monday.

CNC has been the topic of several other research reports. Barclays started coverage on Centene in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an overweight rating and a $101.00 target price on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research report on Monday. Stephens reaffirmed an equal weight rating and set a $85.00 price target (down previously from $92.00) on shares of Centene in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Centene from $89.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $85.00.

Centene Price Performance

Centene stock opened at $72.25 on Monday. Centene has a 12-month low of $60.83 and a 12-month high of $81.42. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $74.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $38.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.38.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.17. Centene had a return on equity of 14.19% and a net margin of 1.76%. The firm had revenue of $40.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.11 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Centene will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Centene

In other Centene news, Director Lori Jean Robinson sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.41, for a total value of $774,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $886,731.55. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Centene news, Director Lori Jean Robinson sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.41, for a total value of $774,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $886,731.55. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total value of $900,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 235,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,668,850.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,325,441,000. Harris Associates L P boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 172.8% during the 4th quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 10,863,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $806,170,000 after acquiring an additional 6,881,450 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 535.9% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,837,980 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,396,000 after acquiring an additional 1,548,961 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 375.1% during the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 1,943,982 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,263,000 after acquiring an additional 1,534,826 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Centene by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,788,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $605,351,000 after purchasing an additional 704,684 shares during the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.