Earnest Partners LLC Has $180.80 Million Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Earnest Partners LLC grew its position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 53.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,984,500 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,040,780 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in Centene were worth $180,801,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its stake in Centene by 75.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the period. Hurley Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Centene during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Rialto Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Centene by 73.4% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CNC shares. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Centene from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $64.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com raised Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. 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. Argus cut Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.69.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of CNC stock opened at $57.74 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $60.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.89. Centene Co. has a one year low of $55.03 and a one year high of $80.59. The stock has a market cap of $28.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.70. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The business had revenue of $46.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

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.