Macquarie Group Ltd. Decreases Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Macquarie Group Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 9.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,765 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,510 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd.’s holdings in Centene were worth $2,640,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CNC. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Centene by 84,741.9% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 225,379,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,483,403,000 after buying an additional 225,114,221 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the fourth quarter worth $713,235,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Centene by 16.6% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 33,959,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,146,573,000 after buying an additional 4,839,483 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP increased its stake in Centene by 510.8% in the 1st quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 2,473,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,374,000 after acquiring an additional 2,068,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of Centene by 5,586.9% in the 1st quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,683,431 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,409,000 after acquiring an additional 1,653,829 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.92% of the company’s stock.

Centene Price Performance

Shares of Centene stock opened at $67.86 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $36.74 billion, a PE ratio of 13.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.57. Centene Co. has a 12-month low of $60.83 and a 12-month high of $87.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.09.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 28th. The company reported $2.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.05. Centene had a net margin of 1.83% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The business had revenue of $37.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.77 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.46 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CNC. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Centene from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Centene from $86.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 31st. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Centene from $88.00 to $83.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of Centene in a report on Monday, July 31st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.33.

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. It operates in two segments, Managed Care and Specialty Services. The Managed Care segment offers health plan coverage to individuals through government subsidized programs, including Medicaid, the State children's health insurance program, long-term services and support, foster care, and medicare-medicaid plans, which cover dually eligible individuals, as well as aged, blind, or disabled programs.