State of Alaska Department of Revenue Has $5.33 Million Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue lessened its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 18.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,039 shares of the company’s stock after selling 20,200 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Centene were worth $5,333,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Centene by 693.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,346,000 after acquiring an additional 1,490,935 shares during the period. Harris Associates L P lifted its position in shares of Centene by 5.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Centene by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after purchasing an additional 428,100 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its position in Centene by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,082,000 after buying an additional 343,559 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Centene in the third quarter valued at approximately $236,940,000. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $68.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Centene from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Centene currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director H James Dallas purchased 1,693 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $59.01 per share, for a total transaction of $99,903.93. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99,903.93. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Thomas Greco acquired 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $59.75 per share, with a total value of $1,015,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,153,712.75. This represents a 736.25 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have acquired 40,893 shares of company stock valued at $2,409,962. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Centene Stock Up 0.5 %

CNC opened at $58.95 on Friday. Centene Co. has a twelve month low of $55.03 and a twelve month high of $81.42. The firm has a market cap of $29.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.23, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $67.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 1.90% and a return on equity of 13.32%. The company’s revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.