APG Asset Management N.V. Grows Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

APG Asset Management N.V. increased its stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC - Free Report) by 198.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 401,771 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 266,998 shares during the quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. owned approximately 0.08% of Centene worth $23,505,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Centene by 1.1% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 180,478 shares of the company's stock worth $13,586,000 after purchasing an additional 2,023 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC raised its holdings in Centene by 69.4% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 35,585 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,679,000 after acquiring an additional 14,581 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Centene during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,446,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Centene by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 166,328 shares of the company's stock worth $12,521,000 after buying an additional 7,521 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 6.9% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 30,118 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,267,000 after acquiring an additional 1,946 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Argus downgraded shares of Centene from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Centene from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $53.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com raised Centene from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Centene has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $80.85.

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Centene Stock Performance

Shares of CNC stock traded down $0.59 during trading on Monday, hitting $63.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,112,257 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,695,130. The company has a market cap of $31.39 billion, a PE ratio of 10.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. Centene Co. has a 52 week low of $55.03 and a 52 week 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $59.49 and a 200-day moving average of $61.65.

Centene (NYSE:CNC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 period in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current 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.