Choreo LLC Has $701,000 Holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Choreo LLC cut its position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,608 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,080 shares during the quarter. Choreo LLC’s holdings in Centene were worth $701,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC grew its position in Centene by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC now owns 221,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,398,000 after purchasing an additional 10,515 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd grew its position in Centene by 68.4% in the 4th quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 36,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,189,000 after purchasing an additional 14,671 shares during the last quarter. Polianta Ltd grew its position in Centene by 41.7% in the 4th quarter. Polianta Ltd now owns 22,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 6,500 shares during the last quarter. Vantage Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Centene by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vantage Investment Partners LLC now owns 683,817 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,478,000 after purchasing an additional 99,904 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,082,000 after acquiring an additional 343,559 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CNC shares. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. UBS Group raised shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Argus downgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Stephens cut their price target on shares of Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Centene presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.31.

Centene Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $58.90 on Tuesday. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $55.03 and a 1-year high of $81.42. The company has a market cap of $29.73 billion, a PE ratio of 9.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company has a 50-day moving average of $61.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.97.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Centene

In other Centene news, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher purchased 17,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $58.14 per share, for a total transaction of $1,000,008.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 486,847 shares in the company, valued at $28,305,284.58. This represents a 3.66 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director H James Dallas purchased 1,693 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $59.01 per share, with a total value of $99,903.93. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,693 shares in the company, 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. Insiders acquired a total of 40,893 shares of company stock worth $2,409,962 in the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.