Probity Advisors Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Probity Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 14.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,402 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,227 shares during the quarter. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Centene were worth $448,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Centene in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 21.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $639,450,000 after acquiring an additional 1,884,358 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 42.8% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,742,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $469,053,000 after acquiring an additional 2,319,952 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 32.3% during the 4th 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 boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 9.1% during the 4th 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CNC shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Centene from $64.00 to $61.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Argus downgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.77.

Centene Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of CNC opened at $57.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $60.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $28.70 billion, a PE ratio of 9.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.48. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.38. The company 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%. Centene’s revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.26 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

Centene Company 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.