Capital Performance Advisors LLP Purchases New Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,584 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $195,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Centene by 3.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 621,664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,799,000 after buying an additional 22,233 shares in the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Centene by 20.0% in the third quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 730 shares during the last quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV grew its position in Centene by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV now owns 5,320 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Centene by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 203,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,311,000 after purchasing an additional 8,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Centene by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 170,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,836,000 after purchasing an additional 7,829 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CNC. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $83.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Centene from $97.00 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Centene from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Centene from $83.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.92.

Centene Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of Centene stock traded down $0.74 during trading on Friday, hitting $61.78. 330,870 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,911,290. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $59.77 and a 1-year high of $81.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.49. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $70.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $71.75.

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.