Teacher Retirement System of Texas Raises Holdings in Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in shares of Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC - Free Report) by 47.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 573,631 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 183,629 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned approximately 0.12% of Centene worth $34,825,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Centene during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,536,167,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Centene by 42.8% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,742,698 shares of the company's stock valued at $469,053,000 after acquiring an additional 2,319,952 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP boosted its position in shares of Centene by 1,788.1% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 2,245,511 shares of the company's stock valued at $136,033,000 after acquiring an additional 2,126,582 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 111.5% during the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 3,608,213 shares of the company's stock valued at $219,055,000 after acquiring an additional 1,902,277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Centene by 21.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,555,456 shares of the company's stock worth $639,450,000 after buying an additional 1,884,358 shares during the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Centene from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating and set a $45.00 price target (down previously from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a "neutral" rating and set a $48.00 price target (down previously from $75.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald dropped their price objective on Centene from $90.00 to $65.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $68.87.

Centene Stock Performance

CNC stock traded down $0.25 during trading on Monday, hitting $33.06. 22,979,553 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,527,884. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $55.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company has a market cap of $16.45 billion, a PE ratio of 4.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.44. Centene Corporation has a 1 year low of $32.99 and a 1 year high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.38. The company had revenue of $46.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $43.16 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 2.04%. Centene's quarterly revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.26 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Centene Corporation will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.