Centene (CNC) Stock Forecast & Price Target

Q: What analysts cover Centene?

Centene has been rated by research analysts at Argus , Barclays , Cantor Fitzgerald , JPMorgan Chase & Co. , Morgan Stanley , Raymond James Financial , Robert W. Baird , Royal Bank Of Canada , Sanford C. Bernstein , Stifel Nicolaus , TD Cowen , Truist Financial , UBS Group , Weiss Ratings , Wells Fargo & Company , and Zacks Research in the past 90 days.

$66.92 -0.12 (-0.18%)

As of 09/4/2026 03:58 PM Eastern

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Centene - Analysts' Recommendations and Stock Price Forecast (2026)

Consensus Rating

Hold

Based on 20 Analyst Ratings

Sell
2

Hold
9

Buy
9

Based on 20 Wall Street analysts who have issued ratings for Centene in the last 12 months, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold." Out of the 20 analysts, 2 have given a sell rating, 9 have given a hold rating, 8 have given a buy rating, and 1 has given a strong buy rating for CNC.

Consensus Price Target

$70.05
4.68% Upside

According to the 20 analysts' twelve-month price targets for Centene, the average price target is $70.05. The highest price target for CNC is $80.00, while the lowest price target for CNC is $40.00. The average price target represents a forecasted upside of 4.68% from the current price of $66.92.

MarketBeat calculates consensus analyst ratings for stocks using the most recent rating from each Wall Street analyst that has rated a stock within the last twelve months. Each analyst's rating is normalized to a standardized rating score of 1 (sell), 2 (hold), 3 (buy) or 4 (strong buy). Analyst consensus ratings scores are calculated using the mean average of the number of normalized sell, hold, buy and strong buy ratings from Wall Street analysts. Each stock's consensus analyst rating is derived from its calculated consensus ratings score (0 to .5 = Strong Sell, .5 to 1 = Sell, 1 to 1.5 = Reduce, 1.5 to 2.5 = Hold, 2.5 to 3.0 = Moderate Buy, 3.0 to 3.5 = Buy, >3.5 = Strong Buy). MarketBeat's consensus price targets are a mean average of the most recent available price targets set by each analyst that has set a price target for the stock in the last twelve months. MarketBeat's consensus ratings and consensus price targets may differ from those calculated by other firms due to differences in methodology and available data.

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CNC Analyst Ratings Over Time

Type	Current Forecast 9/8/25 to 9/8/26	1 Month Ago 8/9/25 to 8/9/26	3 Months Ago 6/10/25 to 6/10/26	1 Year Ago 9/8/24 to 9/8/25
Strong Buy	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)
Buy	8 Buy rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)
Hold	9 Hold rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	13 Hold rating(s)
Sell	2 Sell rating(s)	2 Sell rating(s)	2 Sell rating(s)	1 Sell rating(s)
Consensus Price Target	$70.05	$68.58	$60.24	$37.93
Forecasted Upside	4.68% Upside	4.39% Upside	-7.95% Downside	31.64% Upside
Consensus Rating	Hold	Hold	Hold	Hold

CNC Analyst Recommendations By Month

The chart below shows how a company's ratings by analysts have changed over time. Each bar represents the previous year of ratings for that month. Within each bar, the sell ratings are shown in red, the hold ratings are shown in yellow, the buy ratings are shown in green, and the strong buy ratings are shown in dark green.

CNC Price Targets by Month

The chart below shows how a company's share price and consensus price target have changed over time. The dark blue line represents the company's actual price. The lighter blue line represents the stock's consensus price target. The even lighter blue range in the background of the two lines represents the low price target and the high price target for each stock.

Centene Stock vs. The Competition

Type	Centene	Healthcare Companies	Broader Market
Consensus Rating Score	2.40	2.30	2.53
Consensus Rating	Hold	Hold	Moderate Buy
Predicted Upside	4.68% Upside	928.67% Upside	14.03% Upside
News Sentiment Rating	Positive News See Recent CNC News	Positive News	Positive News

Recent Analyst Forecasts and Stock Ratings

Rating

Upside/Downside

Action

Time Frame

Start Date

End Date

Show

Export

Date	Brokerage	Analyst	Action	Rating	Price Target	Report Date Upside/Downside
8/18/2026	UBS Group 4 of 5 stars	A.J. Rice 4 of 5 stars	Set Target		$79.00	+20.78%
8/11/2026	Argus 3 of 5 stars	John Staszak 2 of 5 stars	Upgrade	Hold ➝ Buy	$80.00	+20.28%
8/4/2026	JPMorgan Chase & Co. 3 of 5 stars	John Stansel Not Rated	Boost Target	Neutral	$60.00 ➝ $67.00	+4.48%
8/3/2026	Stifel Nicolaus Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating		Set Target		$79.00	+26.95%
8/3/2026	Sanford C. Bernstein Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Lance Wilkes Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Reiterated Rating	Outperform	$68.00 ➝ $79.00	+26.95%
7/29/2026	Morgan Stanley Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Erin Wright Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Set Target		$66.00	+7.20%
7/29/2026	Barclays Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Andrew Mok Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Reiterated Rating	Overweight	$75.00 ➝ $80.00	+24.75%
7/29/2026	Zacks Research Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating		Upgrade	Hold ➝ Strong-Buy
7/29/2026	Robert W. Baird Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Michael Ha Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Target	Neutral	$46.00 ➝ $66.00	+2.92%
7/17/2026	Weiss Ratings Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating		Reiterated Rating	Sell (D)
Earth's biggest energy source: near Grand Canyon (Ad) The largest energy source on Earth contains 50,000 times every oil and gas reserve on the planet combined - and much of it sits beneath the desert near the Grand Canyon. A drilling crew just hit the DOE's 2035 targets twelve years early, with costs down 50% in 18 months. Google signed on, Gates invested, and the Pentagon made it a priority. One company has been quietly building this infrastructure for sixty years. See the company sitting on the biggest energy source on Earth
7/14/2026	TD Cowen Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Ryan Langston Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Reiterated Rating	Hold	$47.00 ➝ $65.00	-5.62%
7/14/2026	Truist Financial Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	David MacDonald Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Target	Buy	$71.00 ➝ $78.00	+13.38%
7/13/2026	Wells Fargo & Company Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Stephen Baxter Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Set Target	Equal Weight	$56.00 ➝ $69.00	+1.17%
7/9/2026	Royal Bank Of Canada Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Ben Hendrix Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Target	Sector Perform	$70.00 ➝ $71.00	+6.05%
7/7/2026	Raymond James Financial Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Sarah James Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Set Target		$75.00	+12.44%
7/7/2026	Cantor Fitzgerald Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Sarah James Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Target	Overweight	$60.00 ➝ $75.00	+13.60%
6/8/2026	Mizuho Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Ann Hynes Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Set Target	Neutral	$58.00 ➝ $63.00	+0.47%
6/4/2026	Bank of America Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Kevin Fischbeck Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Target	Buy	$72.00 ➝ $74.00	+18.12%
5/27/2026	Oppenheimer Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Michael Wiederhorn Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Target	Outperform	$58.00 ➝ $67.00	+12.22%
5/20/2026	Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	George Hill Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Upgrade	Hold ➝ Buy	$53.00 ➝ $80.00	+35.20%
4/29/2026	The Goldman Sachs Group Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating		Reiterated Rating	Sell	$40.00	-19.07%
4/29/2026	Jefferies Financial Group Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	David Windley Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Boost Target	Hold	$39.00 ➝ $48.00	-2.88%
4/29/2025	Guggenheim Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating	Jason Cassorla Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the analyst's recommendation accuracy rating	Reiterated Rating	Neutral
12/13/2024	Stephens Subscribe to MarketBeat All Access for the firm's recommendation accuracy rating		Lower Target	Equal Weight	$75.00 ➝ $73.00	+22.09%

Analyst ratings data on MarketBeat is provided by Benzinga and other data providers. This page was last refreshed on Tuesday at 01:23 AM ET.

Should I Buy Centene Stock? CNC Pros and Cons Explained

These pros and cons were generated based on recent news and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate insights. They were last updated on Friday, September 4, 2026. Please send any questions or comments about these Centene pros and cons to contact@marketbeat.com.

Centene
Bull Case

Here are some ways that investors could benefit from investing in Centene Co.:

Centene Co. recently delivered a significant earnings beat, reporting $2.51 in earnings per share for the quarter ended July 27, 2026, which exceeded the consensus estimate of $1.09 by $1.42, demonstrating strong operational performance and profitability that can drive shareholder value.
The stock is currently trading at $66.92, which is near its 52-week high of $69.36, indicating strong recent momentum and investor confidence in the company's recovery and growth trajectory over the past year.
Centene Co. has raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $193.5 billion to $197.5 billion, surpassing the previous consensus estimate of $190.5 billion, signaling management's confidence in sustained top-line growth and market share gains.
Several prominent financial institutions have recently upgraded their outlooks on the stock, including Argus raising its rating to "buy" with an $80.00 price target and Wall Street Zen upgrading to "strong-buy," reflecting a positive shift in analyst sentiment and potential for further price appreciation.
The company has appointed Bradley Bolivar as its new Chief Information Officer, bringing nearly three decades of technology leadership experience from Fannie Mae, which is expected to enhance Centene Co.'s digital infrastructure and support its turnaround strategy in a competitive healthcare market.

Centene
Bear Case

Investors should be bearish about investing in Centene Co. for these reasons:

Despite recent earnings beats, Centene Co. continues to report a negative net margin of 2.51% and a negative price-to-earnings ratio of -6.41, indicating that the company is still struggling with profitability and may face challenges in converting revenue growth into sustainable profits.
Insider selling activity has been notable, with General Counsel Christopher Koster selling 56,500 shares at an average price of $66.90 in late August 2026, which could signal a lack of confidence from company insiders in the stock's near-term upside potential.
The stock has experienced significant volatility, including a 40% drop at one point in the recent past and multiple gap-down events in 2026, suggesting that the investment carries higher risk and may be sensitive to market sentiment and operational setbacks.
Short interest remains elevated, with approximately 13.27 million shares shorted as of August 2026, representing about 2.7% of the float, which indicates that a portion of the market is betting against the stock and could lead to further price pressure if negative news emerges.
Centene Co. faces intense competition in the managed healthcare sector, and its reliance on government-sponsored programs like Medicaid and Medicare Advantage exposes it to regulatory risks and potential changes in reimbursement rates that could impact future earnings stability.

CNC Forecast - Frequently Asked Questions

According to the research reports of 20 Wall Street equities research analysts, the average twelve-month stock price forecast for Centene is $70.05, with a high forecast of $80.00 and a low forecast of $40.00.

20 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Centene in the last year. There are currently 2 sell ratings, 9 hold ratings, 8 buy ratings and 1 strong buy rating for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "hold" CNC shares. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in CNC, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.

According to analysts, Centene's stock has a predicted upside of 4.68% based on their 12-month stock forecasts.

Over the previous 90 days, Centene's stock had 2 upgrades and 1 downgrade by analysts.

Centene has been rated by research analysts at Argus, Barclays, Cantor Fitzgerald, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Raymond James Financial, Robert W. Baird, Royal Bank Of Canada, Sanford C. Bernstein, Stifel Nicolaus, TD Cowen, Truist Financial, UBS Group, Weiss Ratings, Wells Fargo & Company, and Zacks Research in the past 90 days.

Analysts like Centene more than other "healthcare" companies. The consensus rating score for Centene is 2.40 while the average consensus rating score for "healthcare" companies is 2.30. Learn more on how CNC compares to other companies.

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MarketBeat monitors more than a dozen sources for Centene analyst ratings, with the most recent rating issued on 8/18/2026.

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Centene (CNC) Stock Forecast & Price Target