TD Cowen Lowers Centene (NYSE:CNC) Price Target to $80.00

Centene (NYSE:CNC) had its target price reduced by TD Cowen from $91.00 to $80.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird assumed coverage on Centene in a report on Thursday, May 30th. They set a neutral rating and a $83.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of Centene from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Oppenheimer reissued an outperform rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an overweight rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Centene from a buy rating to a hold rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $83.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Centene has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $83.93.

Centene Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $73.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $69.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.76. The company has a market capitalization of $39.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.53, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. Centene has a twelve month low of $60.83 and a twelve month high of $81.42.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.62. The firm had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.83 billion. Centene had a net margin of 1.76% and a return on equity of 14.19%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.10 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Centene will post 6.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Centene news, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 8,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.62, for a total value of $620,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 300,357 shares in the company, valued at $23,313,710.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Christopher J. Coughlin sold 878 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.75, for a total value of $67,386.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 25,504 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,957,432. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.62, for a total value of $620,960.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 300,357 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,313,710.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Centene

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CNC. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Centene during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Centene during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. bought a new position in Centene in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Riverview Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 154.6% during the second quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 527 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Centene in the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.