Centene (NYSE:CNC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group

Centene (NYSE:CNC) was upgraded by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $64.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $53.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 2.15% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on CNC. Truist Financial cut their target price on Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stephens dropped their price target on Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.85.

Centene Price Performance

Centene stock opened at $62.65 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.89. The stock has a market cap of $31.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.04, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. Centene 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Centene will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,536,167,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 21.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $639,450,000 after acquiring an additional 1,884,358 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 42.8% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,742,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $469,053,000 after acquiring an additional 2,319,952 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 32.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,469,062 shares of the company’s stock worth $391,854,000 after acquiring an additional 1,578,917 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,294,816 shares of the company’s stock worth $320,760,000 after acquiring an additional 443,121 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.