Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Shares Acquired by Bridgewater Associates LP

Bridgewater Associates LP boosted its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC - Free Report) by 161.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,222,029 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 754,784 shares during the period. Bridgewater Associates LP owned approximately 0.24% of Centene worth $74,031,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CNC. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Centene by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC now owns 221,156 shares of the company's stock worth $13,398,000 after purchasing an additional 10,515 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 68.4% in the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 36,126 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,189,000 after purchasing an additional 14,671 shares during the period. Polianta Ltd lifted its holdings in Centene by 41.7% during the 4th quarter. Polianta Ltd now owns 22,100 shares of the company's stock worth $1,338,000 after buying an additional 6,500 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Centene by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company's stock valued at $97,082,000 after purchasing an additional 343,559 shares during the period. Finally, Washington Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,130 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,159,000 after buying an additional 5,550 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Centene from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $53.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Argus lowered Centene from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Centene from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Centene has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $80.69.

Centene Stock Performance

CNC stock traded down $1.28 during trading on Friday, hitting $60.70. The company had a trading volume of 5,758,979 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,693,952. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $55.03 and a 1-year high of $80.59. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $59.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.38. 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 firm has a market cap of $30.11 billion, a PE ratio of 9.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53.

Centene (NYSE:CNC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion during 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect 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.