Centene (NYSE:CNC) Rating Lowered to Underperform at Bank of America

Centene (NYSE:CNC) was downgraded by stock analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $30.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $52.00. Bank of America‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 3.01% from the company’s current price.

CNC has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price target (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Oppenheimer set a $51.00 price target on shares of Centene and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Centene from $71.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Centene presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.63.

Centene Stock Performance

NYSE CNC opened at $29.12 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $50.73 and a 200-day moving average of $57.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market cap of $14.49 billion, a PE ratio of 4.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.44. Centene has a 52-week low of $28.92 and a 52-week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $46.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.16 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.04% and a return on equity of 14.56%. Centene’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.26 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Ameriflex Group Inc. bought a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Pinney & Scofield Inc. bought a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Hurley Capital LLC bought a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Centene during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Studio Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Centene during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 93.63% of the stock is 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.