Bonfire Financial Buys New Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Bonfire Financial bought a new stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 8,086 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $490,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNC. Harris Associates L P increased its stake in shares of Centene by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,980,932,000 after acquiring an additional 1,420,825 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Centene by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,468,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,766,683,000 after acquiring an additional 111,654 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Centene by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,768,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $434,255,000 after acquiring an additional 194,566 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Centene by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after acquiring an additional 428,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Centene by 693.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,346,000 after acquiring an additional 1,490,935 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stephens decreased their price target on Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com lowered Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Centene has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.31.

Centene Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of CNC stock opened at $58.90 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.97. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $81.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share 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 last year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Centene

In other Centene news, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher acquired 17,200 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $58.14 per share, with a total value of $1,000,008.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 486,847 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,305,284.58. The trade was a 3.66 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas Greco acquired 17,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $59.75 per share, for a total transaction of $1,015,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,153,712.75. This represents a 736.25 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased 40,893 shares of company stock worth $2,409,962 in the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Centene Company Profile

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.