Power Corp of Canada Takes $192,000 Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Mar 16th, 2023

Power Corp of Canada bought a new stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC – Get Rating) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,469 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Centene by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,270,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,433,266,000 after purchasing an additional 855,690 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Centene by 130.9% in the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,300,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $363,905,000 after purchasing an additional 2,438,316 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Centene by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,979,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,672,000 after purchasing an additional 32,165 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Centene by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,399,163 shares of the company’s stock valued at $264,489,000 after purchasing an additional 183,164 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Centene by 3.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,226,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $271,614,000 after acquiring an additional 109,994 shares during the last quarter. 93.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Centene from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $94.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 23rd. Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Centene from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 14th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Centene from $92.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $97.00 to $74.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.94.

Centene Stock Performance

NYSE CNC opened at $63.54 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $72.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $79.15. The stock has a market cap of $35.03 billion, a PE ratio of 31.15, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.56. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $62.38 and a fifty-two week high of $98.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06.

Centene (NYSE:CNC – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $35.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $35.37 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 0.83%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Centene declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Friday, December 16th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 4.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Centene news, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were bought at an average price of $71.89 per share, for a total transaction of $215,670.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 310,955 shares in the company, valued at $22,354,554.95. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Centene news, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher purchased 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were bought at an average price of $71.89 per share, for a total transaction of $215,670.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 310,955 shares in the company, valued at $22,354,554.95. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Theodore R. Samuels II purchased 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 8th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $71.88 per share, for a total transaction of $503,160.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 11,912 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $856,234.56. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have purchased 16,750 shares of company stock valued at $1,213,605. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Centene Company Profile

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Centene Corp. operates as a healthcare enterprise, which engages in the provision of programs and services to government sponsored healthcare programs. It operates through the following segments: Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO.