Cozad Asset Management Inc. Lowers Stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Cozad Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 14.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,741 shares of the company’s stock after selling 640 shares during the period. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Centene were worth $227,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 693.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,936 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,490,935 shares during the last quarter. Harris Associates L P lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 5.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,420,825 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Centene by 77.2% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,786,770 shares of the company’s stock valued at $176,040,000 after purchasing an additional 1,214,425 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Centene in the 4th quarter valued at $53,736,000. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 428,100 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. Barclays upped their target price on Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Centene from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 target price (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com downgraded Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.92.

Centene Price Performance

NYSE:CNC opened at $59.61 on Wednesday. Centene Co. has a 52 week low of $55.03 and a 52 week high of $80.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.57 billion, a PE ratio of 9.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $60.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.46.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its 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. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. The firm 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 earned $0.45 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal 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.