Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Shares Sold by Natixis

Natixis lessened its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 39,433 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,184 shares during the period. Natixis’ holdings in Centene were worth $2,389,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CNC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Centene in the 4th quarter worth $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $639,450,000 after purchasing an additional 1,884,358 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Centene by 693.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,346,000 after buying an additional 1,490,935 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in Centene by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,786,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,040,000 after buying an additional 1,214,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Centene by 80.6% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,080,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,056,000 after acquiring an additional 928,465 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Argus lowered Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Centene from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.69.

Centene Trading Down 4.5 %

CNC stock opened at $57.97 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $59.80 and its 200 day moving average is $61.13. Centene Co. has a 12-month low of $55.03 and a 12-month high of $80.59. The stock has a market cap of $28.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.29, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS 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.