Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) is Heartland Advisors Inc.’s 5th Largest Position

Heartland Advisors Inc. lessened its position in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 456,636 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,653 shares during the quarter. Centene comprises 1.5% of Heartland Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Heartland Advisors Inc. owned about 0.09% of Centene worth $27,663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DnB Asset Management AS boosted its stake in Centene by 210.7% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 272,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,502,000 after purchasing an additional 184,723 shares during the period. denkapparat Operations GmbH acquired a new stake in shares of Centene during the fourth quarter worth about $387,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Centene during the fourth quarter worth about $5,973,000. Easterly Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in Centene by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 164,797 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,983,000 after acquiring an additional 20,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,536,167,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer decreased 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. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Argus lowered Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, Centene has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.92.

Centene Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $60.23 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market cap of $29.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.65, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $59.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.86. Centene Co. has a 52 week low of $55.03 and a 52 week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Centene Co. 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.