Lecap Asset Management Ltd. Takes $829,000 Position in Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC)

Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 13,656 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $829,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Centene by 55.6% during the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 45,103 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,732,000 after buying an additional 16,108 shares during the period. Diametric Capital LP bought a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter valued at $610,000. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in Centene by 85.6% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 216,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,142,000 after acquiring an additional 100,039 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in Centene by 32.3% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $383,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Centene by 41.4% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 925,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,046,000 after acquiring an additional 270,899 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on CNC shares. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Centene in a research report on Monday, June 9th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Centene from $64.00 to $61.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $65.00 price objective (down previously from $84.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Monday, June 2nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.71.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of CNC stock opened at $53.58 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The business has a fifty day moving average of $57.97 and a 200 day moving average of $59.65. Centene Corporation has a 1 year low of $52.93 and a 1 year high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $46.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.16 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 2.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.26 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Centene Corporation will post 6.86 earnings per share 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.