Centene (NYSE:CNC) Price Target Cut to $66.00 by Analysts at Robert W. Baird

Centene (NYSE:CNC) had its price objective decreased by Robert W. Baird from $83.00 to $66.00 in a research note released on Friday, Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on CNC. Barclays dropped their price objective on Centene from $98.00 to $97.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $78.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Centene from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.17.

Centene Stock Up 4.2 %

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $64.22 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.27 billion, a PE ratio of 12.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.48. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $73.16 and its 200-day moving average is $72.37. Centene has a 1 year low of $59.77 and a 1 year high of $81.42.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 25th. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.23. Centene had a return on equity of 14.45% and a net margin of 1.79%. The company had revenue of $42.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $37.91 billion. Equities analysts expect that Centene will post 6.8 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Centene in the first quarter valued at about $914,080,000. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Centene by 0.4% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,652,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $678,033,000 after acquiring an additional 32,427 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Centene by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,491,968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $364,117,000 after purchasing an additional 25,595 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 60.2% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,216,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $409,390,000 after purchasing an additional 1,959,460 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Centene by 14.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,113,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $339,042,000 after buying an additional 636,683 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.