Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Has $40.64 Million Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC boosted its position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC - Free Report) by 14.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 670,874 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 83,278 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned 0.13% of Centene worth $40,642,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rhenman & Partners Asset Management AB grew its stake in Centene by 67.1% during the 4th quarter. Rhenman & Partners Asset Management AB now owns 195,482 shares of the company's stock valued at $11,842,000 after purchasing an additional 78,500 shares in the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Centene during the fourth quarter worth approximately $9,115,000. Smith Moore & CO. increased its stake in shares of Centene by 6.8% in the fourth quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 5,349 shares of the company's stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC boosted its stake in Centene by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 17,840 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,081,000 after acquiring an additional 695 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Centene in the 4th quarter worth about $982,000. 93.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Centene Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:CNC traded down $0.13 on Thursday, hitting $62.50. 2,474,219 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,666,552. The company has a market cap of $31.00 billion, a PE ratio of 10.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $59.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.89. Centene Co. has a 1 year low of $55.03 and a 1 year high of $80.59.

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Centene (NYSE:CNC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on CNC shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Stephens reduced their price objective on Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com cut shares of Centene from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with 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 a consensus price target of $80.85.

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.