Warther Private Wealth LLC Decreases Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Warther Private Wealth LLC reduced its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 52.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,970 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,540 shares during the quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Centene were worth $449,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CNC. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Centene in the 1st quarter worth approximately $914,080,000. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of Centene by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,652,177 shares of the company’s stock worth $678,033,000 after buying an additional 32,427 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Centene by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,491,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $364,117,000 after acquiring an additional 25,595 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Centene by 60.2% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 5,216,486 shares of the company’s stock worth $409,390,000 after purchasing an additional 1,959,460 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 14.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,113,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $339,042,000 after purchasing an additional 636,683 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Centene from $98.00 to $97.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. StockNews.com raised Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Centene from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.17.

Centene Stock Performance

NYSE:CNC opened at $70.70 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $73.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $72.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Centene Co. has a 12-month low of $59.77 and a 12-month high of $81.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.48.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.44 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $36.83 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 14.45% and a net margin of 1.79%. Centene’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.10 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.8 EPS 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.