Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Decreases Stock Position in Cencora, Inc. $COR

Key Points

• Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. reduced its stake in Cencora, Inc. by 12% in the first quarter, resulting in ownership of 161,261 shares valued at approximately $44.8 million.
• Several institutional investors, including GAMMA Investing LLC and T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc., significantly increased their holdings in Cencora, with GAMMA acquiring over 1.5 million shares.
• Cencora reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, exceeding estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.55, reflecting a yield of 0.7%.

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. decreased its holdings in shares of Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR - Free Report) by 12.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 161,261 shares of the company's stock after selling 21,900 shares during the quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned approximately 0.08% of Cencora worth $44,845,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in Cencora by 4.5% in the first quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,104 shares of the company's stock valued at $307,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cencora by 6.4% during the first quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 1,535 shares of the company's stock worth $427,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Cencora by 57.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,748 shares of the company's stock worth $1,598,000 after buying an additional 2,087 shares during the last quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Cencora by 157.6% in the first quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 170 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Advisors Network LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cencora during the first quarter valued at approximately $200,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.52% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $330.00 price objective on Cencora and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Cencora from $337.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Cencora from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $311.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Steven H. Collis sold 14,578 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.67, for a total value of $4,266,543.26. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 309,913 shares of the company's stock, valued at $90,702,237.71. This trade represents a 4.49% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert P. Mauch sold 4,968 shares of Cencora stock in a transaction on Friday, July 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $294.11, for a total transaction of $1,461,138.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 42,351 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,455,852.61. This trade represents a 10.50% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 34,125 shares of company stock worth $9,993,789. Insiders own 10.80% of the company's stock.

Cencora Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE COR traded up $5.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $297.64. The company had a trading volume of 2,199,238 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,548,375. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.71 billion, a PE ratio of 30.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.62. Cencora, Inc. has a twelve month low of $218.65 and a twelve month high of $309.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.64, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.90. The stock's 50 day moving average is $292.84 and its 200-day moving average is $284.16.

Cencora (NYSE:COR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $4.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.79 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $80.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.34 billion. Cencora had a net margin of 0.60% and a return on equity of 267.36%. The firm's revenue was up 8.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.34 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cencora, Inc. will post 15.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cencora Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.55 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Cencora's payout ratio is 22.63%.

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.