Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Short Interest Update

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,200,000 shares, a decrease of 14.6% from the March 15th total of 9,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,010,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.7 days. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity at Centene

In related news, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total transaction 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, President Kenneth J. Fasola sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.07, for a total transaction 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Lori Jean Robinson sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.41, for a total transaction of $774,100.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $886,731.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $396,000. Sound Income Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Gleason Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $78,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Centene by 22.9% in the 1st quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 18,406 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,445,000 after acquiring an additional 3,434 shares during the period. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,385,000. 93.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays began coverage on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $101.00 price target for the company. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Centene from $72.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Centene from $83.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective (down previously from $92.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.38.

Centene Stock Performance

NYSE:CNC opened at $72.72 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $76.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $74.52. Centene has a twelve month low of $60.83 and a twelve month high of $81.42. The company has a market cap of $38.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.38.

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