Wells Fargo & Company Raises Centene (NYSE:CNC) Price Target to $93.00

Centene (NYSE:CNC) had its price objective raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $89.00 to $93.00 in a research note published on Monday, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on CNC. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Centene from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an overweight rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Centene from $72.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. Stephens reaffirmed an equal weight rating and set a $85.00 price objective (down previously from $92.00) on shares of Centene in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. They set an overweight rating and a $101.00 price objective for the company. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $85.38.

Centene Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $72.72 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.52. The firm has a market cap of $38.90 billion, a PE ratio of 14.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.38. Centene has a 1 year low of $60.83 and a 1 year high of $81.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $39.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $36.16 billion. Centene had a net margin of 1.75% and a return on equity of 14.26%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Centene will post 6.75 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total value of $900,840.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 235,365 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,668,850.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Centene news, Director Lori Jean Robinson sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.41, for a total transaction of $774,100.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $886,731.55. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 12,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total value of $900,840.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 235,365 shares in the company, valued at $17,668,850.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Centene by 84,741.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 225,114,221 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Centene during the 4th quarter worth $1,325,441,000. Harris Associates L P raised its stake in shares of Centene by 172.8% during the 4th quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 10,863,367 shares of the company’s stock worth $806,170,000 after purchasing an additional 6,881,450 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Centene by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,788,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $605,351,000 after purchasing an additional 704,684 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Centene by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,619,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $639,878,000 after purchasing an additional 385,839 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Centene Company Profile

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.