Centene (NYSE:CNC) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Centene (NYSE:CNC) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Sunday.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on CNC. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Centene from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. UBS Group set a $42.00 price target on Centene and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Mizuho set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a report on Friday, January 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.81.

Centene Trading Up 1.5%

CNC opened at $41.19 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. Centene has a twelve month low of $25.08 and a twelve month high of $66.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.65.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 6th. The company reported ($1.19) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.22) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $49.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $48.41 billion. Centene had a negative net margin of 3.43% and a positive return on equity of 4.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.80 EPS. Centene has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.000-3.000 EPS. Analysts predict that Centene will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Centene

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Centene by 1.5% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 58,396,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,169,768,000 after buying an additional 869,706 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Centene by 117.0% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 31,798,738 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,308,518,000 after acquiring an additional 17,143,904 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Centene in the second quarter worth $1,435,997,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in Centene by 2.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,186,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,258,586,000 after purchasing an additional 514,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Centene by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,271,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $554,338,000 after purchasing an additional 697,277 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Centene Company Profile

Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) is a diversified, multi-national healthcare enterprise that specializes in providing services to government-sponsored and national health programs. The company primarily acts as a managed care organization, delivering healthcare coverage and administering benefits for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Medicare Advantage, and individual marketplace plans. Centene also contracts with federal and state agencies to manage specialty care programs and community-based services for vulnerable populations.

Centene’s offerings extend beyond traditional insurance to include a range of specialty and support services.