Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. Increases Stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 72,600 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,689 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Centene were worth $4,398,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,490,935 shares during the period. Harris Associates L P boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,420,825 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in Centene by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,786,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,040,000 after buying an additional 1,214,425 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter valued at $53,736,000. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 428,100 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on CNC. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 target price (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.92.

Centene Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Centene stock opened at $59.61 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $29.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.55, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.10. Centene Co. has a 1 year low of $55.03 and a 1 year high of $80.59. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.47 and a 200 day moving average of $63.46.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. Centene’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.