PDS Planning Inc Buys Shares of 3,433 Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC)

PDS Planning Inc bought a new stake in Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,433 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in Centene by 55.6% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 45,103 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,732,000 after purchasing an additional 16,108 shares during the last quarter. Diametric Capital LP purchased a new position in Centene in the fourth quarter valued at about $610,000. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in Centene by 85.6% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 216,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,142,000 after purchasing an additional 100,039 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in Centene by 32.3% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $383,000 after purchasing an additional 1,546 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Centene by 41.4% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 925,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,046,000 after acquiring an additional 270,899 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Centene in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped 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. Robert W. Baird dropped 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. Finally, 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 on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.71.

Centene Trading Up 0.8%

Centene stock opened at $53.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Centene Corporation has a 52 week low of $52.93 and a 52 week high of $80.59. The company has a market capitalization of $26.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $57.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.62.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.38. Centene had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 2.04%. The company had revenue of $46.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.26 earnings per share. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene Corporation 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.