Centene Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:CNC)

Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 52,097 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 55% compared to the typical volume of 33,700 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Centene

In other Centene news, CEO Sarah London bought 19,230 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.50 per share, with a total value of $490,365.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 845,275 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,554,512.50. This trade represents a 2.33% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Theodore R. Samuels II bought 9,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $27.62 per share, with a total value of $248,580.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 32,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $883,840. The trade was a 39.13% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Centene

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in Centene by 32.3% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $383,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546 shares during the last quarter. AXS Investments LLC acquired a new position in Centene during the first quarter worth about $1,458,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Centene by 30.0% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 708,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $43,026,000 after acquiring an additional 163,462 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in Centene by 14.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 3,185,736 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,811,000 after acquiring an additional 398,966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focused Investors LLC boosted its position in Centene by 588.1% during the first quarter. Focused Investors LLC now owns 1,042,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,284,000 after acquiring an additional 890,900 shares during the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on CNC. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $40.00 to $36.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 5th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $45.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $68.00 to $28.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $33.00 to $28.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.93.

Centene Stock Up 9.2%

Shares of NYSE CNC opened at $34.15 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.08. Centene has a 52-week low of $25.08 and a 52-week high of $77.29. The firm has a market cap of $16.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its earnings results on Friday, July 25th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.39). Centene had a net margin of 1.15% and a return on equity of 9.57%. The company had revenue of $48.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $44.71 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Centene has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.750-1.750 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Centene will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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. 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.