Cencora (NYSE:COR) Downgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cencora (NYSE:COR) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on COR. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Cencora from $236.00 to $249.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Cencora from $287.00 to $283.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Cencora from $280.00 to $287.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Leerink Partners restated an outperform rating and issued a $275.00 price target on shares of Cencora in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $245.00 price objective (down previously from $275.00) on shares of Cencora in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $256.67.

Cencora Stock Performance

NYSE COR opened at $228.11 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $234.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $233.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.93. The firm has a market cap of $45.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.44. Cencora has a 52-week low of $178.21 and a 52-week high of $247.66.

Cencora (NYSE:COR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $3.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.18 by $0.16. Cencora had a return on equity of 266.60% and a net margin of 0.65%. The business had revenue of $74.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $73.32 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.92 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cencora will post 13.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Cencora Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.51 dividend. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Cencora’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.32%.

Insider Transactions at Cencora

In related news, EVP Silvana Battaglia sold 1,473 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.69, for a total value of $357,482.37. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,656,970.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Cencora news, EVP Silvana Battaglia sold 1,473 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.69, for a total value of $357,482.37. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,656,970.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Steven H. Collis sold 10,755 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.12, for a total transaction of $2,388,900.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 285,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $63,323,746.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 4,450,399 shares of company stock valued at $1,070,392,799 in the last 90 days. 15.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cencora

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new position in Cencora in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,212,508,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD purchased a new position in shares of Cencora during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,183,619,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquired a new stake in Cencora during the first quarter worth approximately $1,199,695,000. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in Cencora in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,001,269,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors acquired a new position in Cencora in the 1st quarter valued at $650,424,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.52% of the company’s stock.

Cencora Company Profile

Cencora, Inc sources and distributes pharmaceutical products. The company's U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment distributes pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers; provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers; clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support services; data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers; pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and other products to the companion animal and production animal markets; and sales force services to manufacturers.