New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 19,738 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 291,616 shares of the company’s stock after selling 19,738 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.06% of Centene worth $17,666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CNC. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Centene by 693.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 5.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 15.4% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after acquiring an additional 428,100 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,082,000 after acquiring an additional 343,559 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Centene during the third quarter valued at approximately $19,464,000. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group upgraded 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 report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.92.

Insider Activity at Centene

In other news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II acquired 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $58.86 per share, for a total transaction of $294,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 23,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,353,780. This trade represents a 27.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director H James Dallas bought 1,693 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were bought at an average price of $59.01 per share, for a total transaction of $99,903.93. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99,903.93. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have bought 23,693 shares of company stock worth $1,409,954. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of CNC stock opened at $57.72 on Friday. Centene Co. has a 52 week low of $55.03 and a 52 week high of $81.42. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.84. The firm has a market cap of $28.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Centene Company 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.