Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. Buys 12,537 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 17.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 83,459 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 12,537 shares during the quarter. Centene accounts for approximately 1.7% of Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Westbourne Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Centene were worth $5,056,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cidel Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Centene by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Cidel Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,517 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,000 after buying an additional 1,089 shares during the period. Graphene Investments SAS boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Graphene Investments SAS now owns 51,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,126,000 after purchasing an additional 10,300 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 55,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,374,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Centene by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,657,215 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,394,000 after purchasing an additional 98,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Centene by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 84,555 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,114,000 after buying an additional 11,193 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CNC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 target price (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Centene in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrew Lynn Asher bought 17,200 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $58.14 per share, for a total transaction of $1,000,008.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now directly owns 486,847 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,305,284.58. The trade was a 3.66 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Theodore R. Samuels II bought 5,000 shares of Centene stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $58.86 per share, for a total transaction of $294,300.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 23,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,353,780. The trade was a 27.78 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders acquired 40,893 shares of company stock valued at $2,409,962. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Centene Stock Up 0.5 %

CNC opened at $58.95 on Friday. Centene Co. has a fifty-two week low of $55.03 and a fifty-two week high of $81.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.10. The company has a market capitalization of $29.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $61.25 and a 200-day moving average of $67.00.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $40.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.32% and a net margin of 1.90%. Centene’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.82 EPS for the current year.

Centene Company 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.