MetLife Investment Management LLC Grows Stake in Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR)

MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 53,573 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 798 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Cencora were worth $12,037,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cencora during the fourth quarter worth $478,309,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cencora in the 4th quarter worth about $322,460,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Cencora by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,243,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $728,757,000 after purchasing an additional 550,246 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Cencora by 140.6% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 550,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,731,000 after buying an additional 321,800 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its position in Cencora by 30.8% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,338,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $318,385,000 after acquiring an additional 314,846 shares during the last quarter. 97.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $288.00 target price on shares of Cencora in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Cencora from $251.00 to $274.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 14th. Bank of America raised their price target on Cencora from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Cencora from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cencora from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cencora presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $284.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Elizabeth S. Campbell sold 4,127 shares of Cencora stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.28, for a total transaction of $1,107,191.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,934,326.20. The trade was a 21.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Steven H. Collis sold 14,578 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.51, for a total value of $3,928,916.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 317,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $85,680,732.63. The trade was a 4.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 30,675 shares of company stock worth $8,034,778 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Cencora Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE COR opened at $287.02 on Monday. Cencora, Inc. has a 52 week low of $214.77 and a 52 week high of $296.65. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $264.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $247.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.40. The firm has a market cap of $55.66 billion, a PE ratio of 40.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.55.

Cencora (NYSE:COR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.50 by $0.23. Cencora had a return on equity of 328.62% and a net margin of 0.46%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cencora, Inc. will post 15.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cencora Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were issued a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Cencora’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.29%.

About Cencora

Cencora, Inc sources and distributes pharmaceutical products. The company's U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment distributes pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers; provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers; clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support services; data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers; pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and other products to the companion animal and production animal markets; and sales force services to manufacturers.