Centene (NYSE:CNC) Earns “Equal Weight” Rating from Barclays

Centene (NYSE:CNC)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Barclays in a note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $65.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $84.00. Barclays‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 17.33% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Centene from $64.00 to $61.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $78.31.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of CNC opened at $55.40 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $60.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.17. 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 company has a market capitalization of $27.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.48. Centene has a 52-week low of $54.01 and a 52-week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $46.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.16 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.26 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Centene will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Centene in the fourth quarter worth $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Centene by 5.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,091,964 shares of the company’s stock worth $673,393,000 after acquiring an additional 536,508 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Centene by 42.7% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,049,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $669,820,000 after acquiring an additional 3,306,796 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Centene by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,469,062 shares of the company’s stock worth $391,854,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578,917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Centene by 9.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,294,816 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,760,000 after acquiring an additional 443,121 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

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.