Traders Purchase Large Volume of Centene Call Options (NYSE:CNC)

Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors acquired 27,893 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 42% compared to the average daily volume of 19,621 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Centene

In related news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II purchased 9,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The stock was bought at an average price of $27.62 per share, with a total value of $248,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 32,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $883,840. This represents a 39.13% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in Centene by 42.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,049,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $669,820,000 after acquiring an additional 3,306,796 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Centene during the 1st quarter worth approximately $146,557,000. Boston Partners grew its position in Centene by 155.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,901,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $236,802,000 after acquiring an additional 2,373,280 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP grew its position in Centene by 1,788.1% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 2,245,511 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,126,582 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in Centene by 111.5% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,608,213 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,055,000 after acquiring an additional 1,902,277 shares during the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Centene from $48.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Centene from $68.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Bank of America cut Centene from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Centene from $51.00 to $43.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $45.31.

Centene Trading Down 4.9%

Centene stock opened at $25.55 on Wednesday. Centene has a 12 month low of $25.50 and a 12 month high of $80.59. The stock has a market cap of $12.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $45.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 25th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.39). Centene had a net margin of 1.15% and a return on equity of 9.57%. The company had revenue of $48.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Centene will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

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.