Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations Purchases Shares of 99,011 Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations acquired a new position in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 99,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,998,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Harris Associates L P increased its stake in 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 during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Centene by 0.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,468,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,766,683,000 after purchasing an additional 111,654 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Centene by 3.5% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,768,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $434,255,000 after purchasing an additional 194,566 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Centene by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,803,437 shares of the company’s stock worth $230,412,000 after purchasing an additional 130,895 shares during the period. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Centene by 15.4% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,126,000 after buying an additional 428,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of 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 shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stephens lowered their price objective on Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.92.

Centene Price Performance

CNC 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.88. Centene Co. has a one year low of $55.03 and a one year high of $80.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share 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.