Investors Research Corp Invests $301,000 in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Investors Research Corp acquired a new position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 4,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CNC. Independent Advisor Alliance purchased a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter valued at about $204,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Centene by 6.0% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 125,929 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,628,000 after acquiring an additional 7,119 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its holdings in Centene by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 16,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $978,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the period. Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL boosted its holdings in Centene by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Roberts Glore & Co. Inc. IL now owns 32,592 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,974,000 after acquiring an additional 2,270 shares during the period. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group upgraded Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com cut Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Centene presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.92.

Centene Stock Down 1.0 %

CNC stock opened at $59.41 on Tuesday. Centene Co. has a twelve month low of $55.03 and a twelve month high of $80.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $29.47 billion, a PE ratio of 9.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The business has a 50 day moving average of $60.80 and a 200 day moving average of $64.29.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Thomas Greco acquired 17,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $59.75 per share, for a total transaction of $1,015,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,309 shares in the company, valued at $1,153,712.75. The trade was a 736.25 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Theodore R. Samuels II acquired 5,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $58.86 per share, with a total value of $294,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 23,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,353,780. The trade was a 27.78 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $1,409,954. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.