Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Lowers Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lowered its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,764 shares of the company’s stock after selling 420 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in Centene were worth $531,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,490,935 shares during the period. Harris Associates L P boosted its position in Centene by 5.7% during the third 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 period. Amundi boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,214,425 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Centene during the fourth quarter worth about $53,736,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Centene by 4,390.8% during the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 687,814 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,668,000 after purchasing an additional 672,498 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Trading Down 1.2 %

CNC stock opened at $58.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $29.21 billion, a PE ratio of 9.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. Centene Co. has a one year low of $55.03 and a one year high of $80.59. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $60.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The business’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNC has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.92.

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.