Centene (NYSE:CNC) Reaches New 52-Week Low at $64.66

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC – Get Rating)’s share price hit a new 52-week low on Monday . The stock traded as low as $64.66 and last traded at $65.24, with a volume of 211006 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $65.10.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CNC. Loop Capital cut their price objective on Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $94.00 to $79.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 8th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Centene from $92.00 to $80.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. StockNews.com upgraded Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Cowen reduced their target price on Centene from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Centene has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.94.

Centene Stock Down 1.3 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $34.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $72.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $79.26.

Centene (NYSE:CNC – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.01). Centene had a net margin of 0.83% and a return on equity of 12.98%. The business had revenue of $35.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Centene declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Friday, December 16th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 4.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II bought 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $71.88 per share, with a total value of $503,160.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,912 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,234.56. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II acquired 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 8th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $71.88 per share, with a total value of $503,160.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 11,912 shares in the company, valued at approximately $856,234.56. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher acquired 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 9th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $71.89 per share, for a total transaction of $215,670.00. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 310,955 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,354,554.95. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 16,750 shares of company stock valued at $1,213,605 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its stake in Centene by 1,401.4% during the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 46,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,901,000 after purchasing an additional 43,247 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its stake in Centene by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 9,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $841,000 after purchasing an additional 657 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its stake in Centene by 104.7% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 43,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,684,000 after purchasing an additional 22,382 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in Centene during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. boosted its stake in Centene by 10.0% during the 1st quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 37,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,149,000 after purchasing an additional 3,414 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.28% of the company’s stock.

About Centene

(Get Rating)

Centene Corp. operates as a healthcare enterprise, which engages in the provision of programs and services to government sponsored healthcare programs. It operates through the following segments: Managed Care and Specialty Services. The Medicaid Managed Care segment provides health plan coverage to individuals through government subsidized programs through Medicaid.