River Road Asset Management LLC Sells 4,439 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

River Road Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 4.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 102,163 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,439 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Centene were worth $6,189,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its stake in Centene by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,094 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Centene by 75.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA grew its holdings in Centene by 23.7% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 956 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Centene by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intellectus Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Centene by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 7,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stephens cut their target price on shares of Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Argus cut shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer cut 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. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Centene

In related news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II acquired 5,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $58.86 per share, with a total value of $294,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 23,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,353,780. The trade was a 27.78 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Greco acquired 17,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $59.75 per share, with a total value of $1,015,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 19,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,153,712.75. The trade was a 736.25 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 23,693 shares of company stock worth $1,409,954 in the last quarter. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Centene Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNC opened at $58.61 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.15. 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 has a market capitalization of $29.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $55.03 and a 1-year high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly 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. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.