Invesco Ltd. Has $639.45 Million Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 21.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,555,456 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,884,358 shares during the quarter. Invesco Ltd. owned about 2.09% of Centene worth $639,450,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its stake in Centene by 75.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Centene in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Rialto Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Centene during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Centene during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Centene by 73.4% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 631 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stephens lowered their price target on shares of Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Centene currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.92.

Centene Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $61.27 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $59.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $62.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.39 billion, a PE ratio of 9.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. 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 fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.45 earnings per share. Centene’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Centene 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.