Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 3,507 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its holdings in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 11.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 26,948 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,507 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Centene were worth $1,633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CNC. Harris Associates L P boosted its holdings in shares of Centene by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,980,932,000 after buying an additional 1,420,825 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Centene by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 23,468,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,766,683,000 after buying an additional 111,654 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Centene by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,768,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $434,255,000 after buying an additional 194,566 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Centene by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,803,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $230,412,000 after buying an additional 130,895 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Centene by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 3,203,049 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,126,000 after buying an additional 428,100 shares in the last quarter. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 price target (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Centene from $89.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of Centene from $75.00 to $73.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.92.

Centene Price Performance

NYSE:CNC opened at $58.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The firm has a market cap of $29.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $60.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $63.27. Centene Co. has a 1-year low of $55.03 and a 1-year high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS 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.