Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Has $9.77 Million Position in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund reduced its stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 19.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 161,283 shares of the company’s stock after selling 38,133 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Centene were worth $9,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its holdings in shares of Centene by 60.1% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 15,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $922,000 after purchasing an additional 5,712 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC boosted its position in shares of Centene by 75.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 177 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council boosted its position in shares of Centene by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 314,399 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,046,000 after acquiring an additional 4,100 shares during the period. Howard Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, Oxbow Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Centene by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC now owns 65,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,941,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Centene from $96.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Argus cut shares of Centene from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Centene from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.92.

Centene Stock Up 4.2 %

CNC stock opened at $61.40 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. Centene Co. has a 12 month low of $55.03 and a 12 month high of $81.42. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $61.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.49.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $38.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Theodore R. Samuels II acquired 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $58.86 per share, with a total value of $294,300.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 23,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,353,780. This represents a 27.78 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director H James Dallas acquired 1,693 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $59.01 per share, with a total value of $99,903.93. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 1,693 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99,903.93. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders bought 23,693 shares of company stock valued at $1,409,954 over the last quarter. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.