Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the sixteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $80.69.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Centene from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Centene from an "underperform" rating to a "hold" rating and increased their target price for the company from $53.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Centene in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 15th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Centene during the 4th quarter worth $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Centene by 21.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company's stock valued at $639,450,000 after purchasing an additional 1,884,358 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Centene by 42.8% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,742,698 shares of the company's stock valued at $469,053,000 after acquiring an additional 2,319,952 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Centene by 32.3% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,469,062 shares of the company's stock valued at $391,854,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578,917 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Centene by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,294,816 shares of the company's stock valued at $320,760,000 after acquiring an additional 443,121 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company's stock.

Centene Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE CNC traded up $1.73 on Friday, reaching $61.96. 521,646 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,556,616. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Centene has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.74 billion, a PE ratio of 9.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a 50 day moving average of $59.86 and a 200 day moving average of $61.13.

Centene (NYSE:CNC - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Centene will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.