Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Shares Sold by Summit Investment Advisors Inc.

Summit Investment Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,263 shares of the company’s stock after selling 409 shares during the quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Centene were worth $319,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Centene by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $639,450,000 after purchasing an additional 1,884,358 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in Centene by 77.2% during the fourth 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. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Centene by 80.6% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,080,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $126,056,000 after acquiring an additional 928,465 shares during the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Centene Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of CNC stock opened at $60.70 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $59.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.23.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The company’s revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Centene in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised Centene from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $53.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.69.

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.