Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Centene Put Options (NYSE:CNC)

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders acquired 20,784 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 64% compared to the average daily volume of 12,635 put options.

Insider Transactions at Centene

In other Centene news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II acquired 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $58.86 per share, for a total transaction of $294,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 23,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,353,780. This represents a 27.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director H James Dallas acquired 1,693 shares of Centene stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $59.01 per share, with a total value of $99,903.93. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99,903.93. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $1,409,954 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Centene by 693.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,490,935 shares during the period. Harris Associates L P increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,980,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,825 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in Centene by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,786,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,040,000 after buying an additional 1,214,425 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in Centene by 80.6% during the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,080,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,056,000 after purchasing an additional 928,465 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Centene in the 4th quarter worth approximately $53,736,000. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of CNC stock opened at $57.36 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $28.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $61.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.91. Centene has a 12-month low of $55.03 and a 12-month high of $81.42.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Centene will post 6.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on CNC. Stephens dropped their target price 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. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.31.

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.