Alberta Investment Management Corp Acquires 105,000 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Alberta Investment Management Corp raised its position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 15.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 804,900 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 105,000 shares during the quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp owned approximately 0.16% of Centene worth $48,761,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Harris Associates L P increased its position in shares of Centene by 5.7% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,980,932,000 after acquiring an additional 1,420,825 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Centene by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,468,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,766,683,000 after buying an additional 111,654 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of Centene by 3.5% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,768,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $434,255,000 after buying an additional 194,566 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Centene by 15.4% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after buying an additional 428,100 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Centene by 693.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,346,000 after buying an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CNC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Argus cut shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.92.

Centene Stock Performance

CNC opened at $55.94 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.96, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average of $61.05 and a 200 day moving average of $66.25. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $81.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. Centene’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Centene

In other news, Director H James Dallas bought 1,693 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $59.01 per share, for a total transaction of $99,903.93. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 1,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99,903.93. The trade was a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Theodore R. Samuels II bought 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $58.86 per share, with a total value of $294,300.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 23,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,353,780. The trade was a 27.78 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired 23,693 shares of company stock worth $1,409,954 over the last 90 days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.