Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 7,163 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lowered its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 107,349 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,163 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Centene were worth $6,503,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 9.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 74,998 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,645,000 after buying an additional 6,337 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 3.8% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 73,226 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,512,000 after buying an additional 2,656 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in shares of Centene during the third quarter worth approximately $227,000. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 212.8% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 15,316 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,153,000 after buying an additional 10,420 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 1.1% during the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 73,188 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,510,000 after buying an additional 829 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Price Performance

Centene stock opened at $58.88 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.15. The stock has a market cap of $29.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. Centene Co. has a 12-month low of $55.03 and a 12-month high of $80.59. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CNC. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group upgraded Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Centene presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.92.

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.