Centene (NYSE:CNC) Shares Gap Down to $80.23

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $80.23, but opened at $74.11. Centene shares last traded at $74.98, with a volume of 911,943 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on CNC. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Centene from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Centene from $81.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Baird R W raised shares of Centene to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $83.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.77.

Centene Trading Down 8.0 %

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market cap of $39.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.50.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.83 billion. Centene had a net margin of 1.79% and a return on equity of 14.45%. The business’s revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.10 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.84 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Centene

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Centene in the fourth quarter valued at $1,325,441,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Centene in the first quarter valued at about $914,080,000. Harris Associates L P raised its stake in Centene by 172.8% in the fourth quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 10,863,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $806,170,000 after purchasing an additional 6,881,450 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in Centene by 0.4% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,652,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $678,033,000 after acquiring an additional 32,427 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Centene by 0.5% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,491,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $364,117,000 after purchasing an additional 25,595 shares during the last quarter. 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.