Opal Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 2,431 Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Opal Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 2,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Centene in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Centene by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $639,450,000 after buying an additional 1,884,358 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Centene by 42.8% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,742,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $469,053,000 after buying an additional 2,319,952 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Centene by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,469,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,854,000 after buying an additional 1,578,917 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Centene by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,294,816 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,760,000 after purchasing an additional 443,121 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Centene in a research note on Monday, June 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $65.00 price target (down previously from $84.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Centene in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $77.71.

Centene Stock Down 0.3%

CNC opened at $55.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $27.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.85, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.45. Centene Co. has a 52 week low of $54.01 and a 52 week high of $80.59. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.92.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $46.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.16 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal 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.