Centene (CNC) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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. This segment also provides healthcare products. The Medicare segment offers special needs and medicare supplement, and prescription drug plans. The Commercial segment provides health insurance marketplace product for individual, small, and large group commercials. It also operates clinical healthcare and pharmacies, as well as offers dental and speech therapy services. In addition, the company engages in the government contracts business under the TRICARE program and other healthcare related government contracts. It provides services through primary and specialty care physicians, hospitals, and ancillary providers. Centene Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $29.12 to $29.62
• 50-Day Range: $25.20 to $56.68
• 52-Week Range: $25.08 to $80.59
• Volume: 10.88 million shs
• Average Volume: 18.79 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $14.40 billion
• P/E Ratio: 7.26
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Price Target: $42.20
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Centene Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Centene scored higher than 97% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 35th out of 932 stocks in the medical sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 4.1 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Centene has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.12, and is based on 3 buy ratings, 13 hold ratings, and 1 sell rating.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Centene has been the subject of 12 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 7.43%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Centene are expected to grow by 7.43% in the coming year, from $6.86 to $7.37 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Centene is 7.26, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 28.44.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Centene is 7.26, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Medical sector average P/E ratio of about 31.30.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Centene has a PEG Ratio of 1.20. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Centene has a P/B Ratio of 0.52. P/B Ratios below 1 indicate that a company could be undervalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 2.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

5.72% of the float of Centene has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Centene has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Centene has recently increased by 106.70%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 0.0 / 5
• Dividend Strength: N/A

Dividend Yield

Centene does not currently pay a dividend.

Dividend Growth

Centene does not have a long track record of dividend growth.

Sustainability and ESG

• Score: 3.7 / 5
• Environmental Score: -0.41

Percentage of Shares Shorted

5.72% of the float of Centene has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Centene has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 2.1, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Centene has recently increased by 106.70%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

News and Social Media

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.50

News Sentiment

Centene has a news sentiment score of 0.50. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.69 average news sentiment score of Medical companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 83 news articles for Centene this week, compared to 60 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

Only 89 people have searched for CNC on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -35% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

Only 18 people have added Centene to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is a decrease of -14% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Insider Trading: Acquiring Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Centene insiders have bought more of their company's stock than they have sold. Specifically, they have bought $738,945.00 in company stock and sold $0.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

Only 0.36% of the stock of Centene is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

93.63% of the stock of Centene is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

CNC Stock Analysis - Frequently Asked Questions

How have CNC shares performed this year?

Centene's stock was trading at $60.58 at the start of the year. Since then, CNC shares have decreased by 51.6% and is now trading at $29.3270.

How were Centene's earnings last quarter?

Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) issued its earnings results on Friday, July, 25th. The company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.39. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 22.4% compared to the same quarter last year.
Read the conference call transcript.

When did Centene's stock split?

Shares of Centene split before market open on Wednesday, February 6th 2019.The 2-1 split was announced on Tuesday, February 5th 2019. The newly minted shares were distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, February 5th 2019. An investor that had 100 shares of stock prior to the split would have 200 shares after the split.

Does Centene have any subsidiaries?

Centene subsidiaries include these companies: Magellan Health Inc, PANTHERx Rare Pharmacy, Apixio, WellCare Health Plans, Community Medical Group, MHM, Fidelis Care, and others.

Who are Centene's major shareholders?

Centene's top institutional investors include Vanguard Group Inc. (11.89%), Norges Bank (5.39%), State Street Corp (4.72%) and Geode Capital Management LLC (2.69%). Insiders that own company stock include Sarah London, Andrew Lynn Asher, Kenneth J Fasola, Theodore R Samuels II, Christopher J Coughlin, Thomas Greco, Lori Jean Robinson and H James Dallas.
View institutional ownership trends.

How do I buy shares of Centene?

Shares of CNC stock can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages with access to the U.S. stock market include Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, and Vanguard Brokerage Services.

What other stocks do shareholders of Centene own?

Based on aggregate information from My MarketBeat watchlists, some other companies that Centene investors own include Humana (HUM), NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META), American Water Works (AWK), Salesforce (CRM), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Verizon Communications (VZ).

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 7/25/2025
• Today: 8/24/2025
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 10/24/2025
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2025

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Medical
• Industry: MED - HMO
• Sub-Industry: Managed Health Care
• Current Symbol: NYSE:CNC
• CIK: 1071739
• Web: www.centene.com
• Phone: (314) 725-4477
• Fax: 314-558-2428
• Employees: 60,500
• Year Founded: 1984

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Centene: $42.20
• High Price Target: $88.00
• Low Price Target: $28.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +43.9%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.12
• Research Coverage: 17 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $4.04
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 7.26
• Forward P/E Ratio: 4.28
• P/E Growth: 1.2
• Net Income: $3.31 billion
• Net Margins: 1.15%
• Pretax Margin: 1.55%
• Return on Equity: 9.57%
• Return on Assets: 3.10%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.64
• Current Ratio: 1.10
• Quick Ratio: 1.10

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $178.19 billion
• Price / Sales: 0.08
• Cash Flow: $9.87 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 2.97
• Book Value: $55.98 per share
• Price / Book: 0.52

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 491,133,000
• Free Float: 489,365,000
• Market Cap: $14.40 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.40