Centene (CNC) Competitors

Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) and Centene (NYSE:CNC) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, valuation and institutional ownership.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, ELV or CNC?

Elevance Health has higher revenue and earnings than Centene. Centene is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Elevance Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Elevance Health	$183.12B	0.47	$5.98B	$25.63	14.98
Centene	$169.28B	0.16	$3.31B	$6.71	8.27

Is ELV or CNC more profitable?

Elevance Health has a net margin of 3.38% compared to Centene's net margin of 2.03%. Elevance Health's return on equity of 18.28% beat Centene's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Elevance Health	3.38%	18.28%	6.72%
Centene	2.03%	13.85%	4.54%

Do analysts recommend ELV or CNC?

Elevance Health presently has a consensus price target of $498.87, suggesting a potential upside of 29.92%. Centene has a consensus price target of $77.71, suggesting a potential upside of 40.06%. Given Centene's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Centene is more favorable than Elevance Health.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Elevance Health	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75
Centene	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.56

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in ELV or CNC?

89.2% of Elevance Health shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.6% of Centene shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Elevance Health shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Centene shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more risk and volatility, ELV or CNC?

Elevance Health has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Centene has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ELV or CNC?

Centene received 173 more outperform votes than Elevance Health when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 73.13% of users gave Centene an outperform vote while only 67.30% of users gave Elevance Health an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Elevance Health	Outperform Votes 883 67.30%	Underperform Votes 429 32.70%
Centene	Outperform Votes 1056 73.13%	Underperform Votes 388 26.87%

Does the media prefer ELV or CNC?

In the previous week, Elevance Health had 34 more articles in the media than Centene. MarketBeat recorded 52 mentions for Elevance Health and 18 mentions for Centene. Centene's average media sentiment score of 0.88 beat Elevance Health's score of 0.55 indicating that Centene is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Elevance Health	25 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	21 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Centene	10 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Elevance Health beats Centene on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.