Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Takes Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky purchased a new stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC – Get Rating) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 53,667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,176,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Centene by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,270,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,433,266,000 after purchasing an additional 855,690 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 130.9% during the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,300,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $363,905,000 after purchasing an additional 2,438,316 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Centene by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,979,079 shares of the company’s stock worth $336,672,000 after purchasing an additional 32,165 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,399,163 shares of the company’s stock worth $264,489,000 after purchasing an additional 183,164 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,226,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $271,614,000 after purchasing an additional 109,994 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on CNC. Bank of America lowered shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $100.00 to $85.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 13th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Centene from $95.00 to $99.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Centene from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $94.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $94.00 to $79.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 8th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Centene from $100.00 to $93.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Centene presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $96.94.

Centene Stock Performance

Centene stock opened at $62.55 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $78.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Centene Co. has a 12-month low of $61.82 and a 12-month high of $98.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.56.

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

Centene declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Friday, December 16th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 4.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO James E. Murray acquired 6,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $73.30 per share, with a total value of $494,775.00. Following the acquisition, the chief operating officer now directly owns 136,220 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,984,926. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, COO James E. Murray acquired 6,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $73.30 per share, with a total value of $494,775.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief operating officer now directly owns 136,220 shares in the company, valued at $9,984,926. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Sarah London acquired 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $62.60 per share, with a total value of $1,878,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 313,953 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,653,457.80. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 46,750 shares of company stock valued at $3,091,605. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Centene Profile

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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: Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO.