Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 869,706 Shares of Centene Corporation $CNC

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) by 1.5% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 58,396,605 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 869,706 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of Centene worth $3,169,768,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 3.7% in the first quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 99,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,040,000 after buying an additional 3,574 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Centene during the 1st quarter valued at $316,000. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Centene by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 6,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $387,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS increased its position in shares of Centene by 1.9% in the first quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 273,990 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,634,000 after purchasing an additional 5,200 shares during the period. Finally, SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its stake in Centene by 47.7% in the first quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 5,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $340,000 after purchasing an additional 1,809 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Stock Down 3.1%

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $34.85 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $35.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.38. 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 capitalization of $17.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.49.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CNC shares. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Centene in a report on Friday, October 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research note on Friday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Centene in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $42.00 price objective on Centene and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Centene from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.00.

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.