Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Grows Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC grew its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 14.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 670,874 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 83,278 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned approximately 0.13% of Centene worth $40,642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CNC. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its stake in Centene by 75.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Centene in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Centene in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Centene by 73.4% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Riverview Trust Co grew its stake in Centene by 172.7% in the fourth quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Argus cut Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.92.

Centene Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CNC opened at $62.13 on Friday. Centene Co. has a twelve month low of $55.03 and a twelve month high of $80.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The company 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’s 50 day moving average is $59.72 and its 200 day moving average is $62.35.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

Centene 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.