DnB Asset Management AS Acquires 184,723 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

DnB Asset Management AS grew its holdings in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 210.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 272,396 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 184,723 shares during the quarter. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in Centene were worth $16,502,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC raised its position in Centene by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC now owns 221,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,398,000 after acquiring an additional 10,515 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd grew its holdings in Centene by 68.4% during the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 36,126 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,189,000 after purchasing an additional 14,671 shares during the period. Polianta Ltd increased its position in Centene by 41.7% in the fourth quarter. Polianta Ltd now owns 22,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,338,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Centene by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,082,000 after buying an additional 343,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Washington Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Centene by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,130 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,159,000 after acquiring an additional 5,550 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CNC shares. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Argus downgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com cut Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Centene presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.92.

Centene Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:CNC opened at $59.96 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.79. 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 Co. has a 12-month low of $55.03 and a 12-month high of $80.59. The company has a market capitalization of $29.74 billion, a PE ratio of 9.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.