Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Shares Sold by Alliancebernstein L.P.

Alliancebernstein L.P. trimmed its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 751,288 shares of the company’s stock after selling 26,865 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.15% of Centene worth $45,513,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Centene during the fourth quarter worth $1,536,167,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 693.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,346,000 after buying an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in Centene by 77.2% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,786,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,040,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,425 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Centene by 80.6% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,080,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,056,000 after acquiring an additional 928,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the fourth quarter valued at about $53,736,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price objective (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Centene presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.92.

Centene Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of CNC opened at $62.13 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $30.82 billion, a PE ratio of 9.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company’s fifty day moving average is $59.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.35. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Centene Company 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.