United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund Purchases Shares of 5,300 Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund acquired a new stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 5,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $321,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lifted its position in Centene by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 4,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC increased its stake in shares of Centene by 75.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the period. Private Trust Co. NA lifted its holdings in Centene by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 956 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Centene by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intellectus Partners LLC increased its position in Centene by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Intellectus Partners LLC now owns 7,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $438,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on CNC. Argus downgraded shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. StockNews.com cut Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group upgraded Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.92.

Centene Stock Performance

Shares of Centene stock opened at $60.58 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $60.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.71, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $80.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.