Cencora (NYSE:COR) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $320.37 and last traded at $320.02, with a volume of 799746 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $317.93.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Cencora from $337.00 to $354.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI set a $340.00 target price on shares of Cencora in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Cencora in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Cencora from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $330.00 target price on shares of Cencora and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $320.00.

Cencora Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $298.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $292.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.64, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.92, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.63.

Cencora (NYSE:COR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.79 by $0.21. Cencora had a net margin of 0.60% and a return on equity of 267.36%. The business had revenue of $80.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $80.34 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.34 earnings per share. Cencora’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Cencora, Inc. will post 15.37 EPS for the current year.

Cencora Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $2.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Cencora’s payout ratio is 22.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Steven H. Collis sold 31,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.86, for a total transaction of $9,087,111.00. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 305,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $88,671,942.18. The trade was a 9.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Robert P. Mauch sold 5,097 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.00, for a total transaction of $1,478,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 39,274 shares in the company, valued at $11,389,460. This trade represents a 11.49% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,993 shares of company stock worth $16,292,923 in the last ninety days. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cencora

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of COR. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Cencora in the 2nd quarter valued at $695,215,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in Cencora in the 2nd quarter valued at $411,888,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Cencora by 42.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,607,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,281,429,000 after buying an additional 1,364,433 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Cencora by 5.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,479,041 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,740,340,000 after buying an additional 1,125,661 shares during the period. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP increased its holdings in Cencora by 95.0% in the 2nd quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 2,081,732 shares of the company’s stock valued at $624,207,000 after buying an additional 1,013,913 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.52% of the company’s stock.

About Cencora

Cencora, Inc sources and distributes pharmaceutical products. The company's U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment distributes pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers; provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers; clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support services; data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers; pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and other products to the companion animal and production animal markets; and sales force services to manufacturers.