Centene (NYSE:CNC) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $61.98, but opened at $58.70. Centene shares last traded at $60.27, with a volume of 930,649 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CNC. Argus cut shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Centene from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $53.00 to $64.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Guggenheim started coverage on Centene in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Centene currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.69.

Centene Stock Down 2.1 %

The company has a market capitalization of $30.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.73, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $59.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Centene

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Centene by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC now owns 221,156 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,398,000 after buying an additional 10,515 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd increased its holdings in Centene by 68.4% during the 4th quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 36,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,189,000 after acquiring an additional 14,671 shares during the period. Polianta Ltd boosted its holdings in Centene by 41.7% in the 4th quarter. Polianta Ltd now owns 22,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 6,500 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,082,000 after purchasing an additional 343,559 shares during the period. Finally, Washington Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Centene by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. now owns 19,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,159,000 after buying an additional 5,550 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is 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.