MetLife Investment Management LLC Sells 3,153 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

MetLife Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 133,621 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,153 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Centene were worth $8,095,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNC. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Centene during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Centene by 21.7% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 693.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,490,935 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in Centene by 77.2% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 2,786,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,040,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Centene by 80.6% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,080,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,056,000 after purchasing an additional 928,465 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on CNC. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Argus cut shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on Centene in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.69.

Centene Stock Down 4.5 %

CNC stock opened at $57.97 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $28.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.29, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. Centene Co. has a twelve month low of $55.03 and a twelve month high of $80.59. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $59.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $61.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. 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.