Easterly Investment Partners LLC Has $9.98 Million Stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 14.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 164,797 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 20,252 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Centene were worth $9,983,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Centene in the fourth quarter worth about $1,536,167,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P grew its position in 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. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 77.2% during 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 period. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. boosted 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of CNC stock opened at $60.58 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The stock has a market cap of $30.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $60.04 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $62.88. Centene Co. has a one year low of $55.03 and a one year high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results 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 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 analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on CNC shares. Stephens reduced their price target on shares of Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Argus lowered Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Centene presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.92.

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.