Reviewing Centene (CNC) & The Competition

Centene (NYSE:CNC) is one of 233 public companies in the “Healthcare Providers & Services” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Centene to related businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Centene and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Centene	0.72%	12.15%	3.28%
Centene Competitors	-7.80%	-141.18%	-1.53%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.6% of Centene shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.8% of shares of all “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Centene shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of shares of all “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Centene and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Centene	$194.78 billion	-$6.67 billion	22.76
Centene Competitors	$19.03 billion	$288.48 million	7.13

Centene has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. Centene is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Centene and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Centene	1	11	9	0	2.38
Centene Competitors	1843	7703	13249	815	2.55

Centene currently has a consensus target price of $73.80, indicating a potential upside of 11.03%. As a group, “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies have a potential upside of 15.76%. Given Centene’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Centene has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Risk and Volatility

Centene has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Centene’s peers have a beta of 0.96, suggesting that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Centene beats its peers on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

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. This segment also provides healthcare products. The Medicare segment offers special needs and medicare supplement, and prescription drug plans. The Commercial segment provides health insurance marketplace product for individual, small, and large group commercials. It also operates clinical healthcare and pharmacies, as well as offers dental and speech therapy services. In addition, the company engages in the government contracts business under the TRICARE program and other healthcare related government contracts. It provides services through primary and specialty care physicians, hospitals, and ancillary providers. Centene Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.