Norges Bank Buys New Shares in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 25,357,664 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,536,167,000. Norges Bank owned 0.05% of Centene as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC raised its holdings in Centene by 75.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Centene in the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in Centene in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Centene by 73.4% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 631 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Riverview Trust Co increased its holdings in Centene by 172.7% in the 4th quarter. Riverview Trust Co now owns 758 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 480 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CNC shares. Argus lowered shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, UBS Group raised Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.92.

Centene Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of CNC opened at $60.58 on Thursday. Centene Co. has a 52 week low of $55.03 and a 52 week high of $80.59. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $60.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.71, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. Centene had a net margin of 2.03% and a return on equity of 13.85%. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share 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.