Analysts Set Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Price Target at $85.58

Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $85.58.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CNC shares. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Centene from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $85.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $83.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Centene from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd.

Centene Trading Up 0.1 %

CNC stock opened at $72.08 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $38.47 billion, a PE ratio of 14.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $75.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $73.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.17. Centene has a fifty-two week low of $63.45 and a fifty-two week high of $81.42.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its 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). Centene had a return on equity of 14.45% and a net margin of 1.79%. The business had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.10 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in Centene by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 148,354 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,009,000 after acquiring an additional 35,352 shares during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Centene in the 4th quarter valued at about $7,942,000. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 75.4% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 898,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,710,000 after purchasing an additional 386,379 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Centene by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 504,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,430,000 after buying an additional 2,817 shares during the period. Finally, NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Centene by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 7,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $561,000 after buying an additional 1,596 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.