West Family Investments Inc. Makes New $267,000 Investment in Centene Corporation $CNC

West Family Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 4,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $267,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in Centene by 5.0% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 76,002 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,125,000 after buying an additional 3,600 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 173,167 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,400,000 after purchasing an additional 12,276 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the second quarter worth approximately $1,435,997,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Centene by 42.6% during the second quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 62,828 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,410,000 after purchasing an additional 18,779 shares during the period. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment increased its stake in Centene by 33.7% in the 2nd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 39,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,135,000 after buying an additional 9,965 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CNC. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Centene from $41.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Centene from $30.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $45.00 target price (up previously from $36.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Mizuho raised their price target on Centene from $28.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays set a $44.00 price target on Centene and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $40.00.

Centene Stock Performance

CNC opened at $39.19 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $36.14 and a 200-day moving average of $38.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.08. Centene Corporation has a 52-week low of $25.08 and a 52-week high of $66.81. The company has a market cap of $19.26 billion, a PE ratio of -3.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.49.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.21) by $0.71. Centene had a positive return on equity of 7.82% and a negative net margin of 2.85%.The firm had revenue of $49.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $47.50 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.62 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Centene Corporation will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Centene 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.