Kera Capital Partners Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Centene Corporation $CNC

Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 4,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $264,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CNC. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Centene by 42.7% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Centene in the first quarter worth about $146,557,000. Boston Partners raised its position in Centene by 155.3% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its position in Centene by 1,788.1% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Centene by 111.5% in the first 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 in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Sarah London bought 19,230 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.50 per share, with a total value of $490,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 845,275 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,554,512.50. This trade represents a 2.33% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Theodore R. Samuels II bought 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $27.62 per share, with a total value of $248,580.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 32,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $883,840. This trade represents a 39.13% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Centene from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Centene from $33.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 4th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price objective (down previously from $73.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Monday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Centene from $48.00 to $30.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on Centene from $45.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.33.

Centene Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $33.20 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $16.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.22, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.44. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.76. Centene Corporation has a 52 week low of $25.08 and a 52 week high of $77.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 25th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.39). The firm had revenue of $48.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.71 billion. Centene had a net margin of 1.15% and a return on equity of 9.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. Centene has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.750-1.750 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Centene Corporation will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.