Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) Shares Sold by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC - Free Report) by 4.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 197,121 shares of the company's stock after selling 8,316 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in Centene were worth $11,967,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in shares of Centene by 55.6% in the fourth quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 45,103 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,732,000 after buying an additional 16,108 shares in the last quarter. Diametric Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Centene in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $610,000. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Centene by 85.6% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 216,928 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,142,000 after buying an additional 100,039 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Centene by 32.3% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,333 shares of the company's stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 1,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Centene by 41.4% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 925,150 shares of the company's stock valued at $56,046,000 after buying an additional 270,899 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CNC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Centene from $64.00 to $61.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Barclays dropped their price target on Centene from $65.00 to $45.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley cut Centene from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $70.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen cut Centene from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $64.75.

Centene Trading Down 3.4%

NYSE:CNC traded down $1.10 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $31.42. The company had a trading volume of 15,513,063 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,764,398. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $53.79 and a 200 day moving average of $58.30. The company has a market cap of $15.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.68, a P/E/G ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 0.44. Centene Corporation has a 1 year low of $31.39 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.38. Centene had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 2.04%. The business 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 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Centene Corporation will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Centene Profile

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.