First Light Asset Management LLC Buys New Shares in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

First Light Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 88,827 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,889,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Centene in the fourth quarter valued at $221,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Centene in the 4th quarter valued at $495,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Centene by 34.4% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 88,974 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,603,000 after acquiring an additional 22,766 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Centene by 24.0% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 201,771 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,974,000 after acquiring an additional 39,089 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Centene by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 158,044 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,728,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Centene from $82.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Centene from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $78.00 price target on shares of Centene in a report on Monday, August 5th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Centene from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on Centene from $92.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.58.

Centene Stock Down 0.3 %

Centene stock opened at $75.35 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.98, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $74.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $63.45 and a fifty-two week high of $81.42.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.44 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $39.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $36.83 billion. Centene had a net margin of 1.79% and a return on equity of 14.45%. Centene’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.10 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.82 EPS 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.