Lincluden Management Ltd. Cuts Stock Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Lincluden Management Ltd. decreased its stake in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 84,183 shares of the company’s stock after selling 407 shares during the quarter. Lincluden Management Ltd.’s holdings in Centene were worth $5,100,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its holdings in Centene by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after buying an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its holdings in shares of Centene by 75.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Centene by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Centene by 6.2% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $280,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oxbow Advisors LLC increased its position in Centene by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 65,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,941,000 after buying an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CNC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on Centene from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One investment 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 MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.92.

Centene Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CNC opened at $58.89 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $61.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Centene Co. has a 12 month low of $55.03 and a 12 month high of $81.42. The company has a market cap of $29.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.44, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.45.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Centene

In other Centene news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II bought 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $58.86 per share, with a total value of $294,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 23,000 shares in the company, valued at $1,353,780. This represents a 27.78 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Greco purchased 17,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $59.75 per share, with a total value of $1,015,750.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 19,309 shares in the company, valued at $1,153,712.75. The trade was a 736.25 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought 23,693 shares of company stock worth $1,409,954 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.