8,086 Shares in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) Acquired by Bonfire Financial

Bonfire Financial bought a new position in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 8,086 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $490,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Centene by 693.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P increased its holdings in Centene by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,980,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,825 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Centene by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after buying an additional 428,100 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Centene by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,602,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,082,000 after buying an additional 343,559 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Centene in the 3rd quarter valued at $236,940,000. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Thomas Greco purchased 17,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $59.75 per share, for a total transaction of $1,015,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 19,309 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,153,712.75. This trade represents a 736.25 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher purchased 17,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $58.14 per share, for a total transaction of $1,000,008.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 486,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,305,284.58. This represents a 3.66 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 40,893 shares of company stock worth $2,409,962. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CNC shares. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stephens lowered their target price on Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Centene from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com cut Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Centene from $91.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.31.

Centene Stock Performance

CNC stock opened at $58.90 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $61.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $29.73 billion, a PE ratio of 9.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.45. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $55.03 and a 1-year high of $81.42.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.97 earnings per share for the current 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.