Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) Shares Purchased by IFM Investors Pty Ltd

IFM Investors Pty Ltd increased its position in shares of Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC - Free Report) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,114 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 8,331 shares during the quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings in Centene were worth $7,171,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $48.00 target price (down previously from $75.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Centene from $71.00 to $69.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Centene in a research report on Monday, June 9th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their target price on shares of Centene from $90.00 to $65.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Guggenheim restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Centene currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $68.87.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of Centene stock traded down $0.51 during trading on Friday, reaching $33.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 33,741,422 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,457,554. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $16.56 billion, a PE ratio of 4.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $55.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.04. Centene Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $33.30 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.38. Centene had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 2.04%. The firm had revenue of $46.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.26 earnings per share. Centene's quarterly revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Centene Corporation will post 6.86 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.