Bank of Nova Scotia Lowers Stock Position in Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR)

Bank of Nova Scotia trimmed its holdings in shares of Cencora, Inc. (NYSE:COR) by 90.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,535 shares of the company’s stock after selling 252,288 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia’s holdings in Cencora were worth $5,737,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of COR. Whittier Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Cencora by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 7,856 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,765,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in Cencora by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC now owns 5,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,223,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co grew its stake in Cencora by 37.7% during the 4th quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 168 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Cencora by 63.0% in the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 119 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its stake in Cencora by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 4,463 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,003,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.52% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth S. Campbell sold 4,127 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.28, for a total transaction of $1,107,191.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 14,665 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,934,326.20. This represents a 21.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Steven H. Collis sold 14,578 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.51, for a total value of $3,928,916.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 317,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $85,680,732.63. The trade was a 4.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 30,675 shares of company stock worth $8,034,778 over the last three months. Company insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America increased their price target on Cencora from $270.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Cencora from $251.00 to $274.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cencora from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Cencora from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Cencora from $289.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $284.20.

Cencora Price Performance

Cencora stock opened at $284.46 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $260.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 16.40, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.92. Cencora, Inc. has a 1 year low of $214.77 and a 1 year high of $296.65. The company has a market capitalization of $55.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.55.

Cencora (NYSE:COR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.50 by $0.23. Cencora had a return on equity of 328.62% and a net margin of 0.46%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cencora, Inc. will post 15.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Cencora Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.55 dividend. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Cencora’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.29%.

About Cencora

Cencora, Inc sources and distributes pharmaceutical products. The company's U.S. Healthcare Solutions segment distributes pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter healthcare products, home healthcare supplies and equipment, and related services to acute care hospitals and health systems, independent and chain retail pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, medical clinics, long-term care and alternate site pharmacies, and other customers; provides pharmacy management, staffing, and other consulting services; supply management software to retail and institutional healthcare providers; packaging solutions to various institutional and retail healthcare providers; clinical trial support, product post-approval, and commercialization support services; data analytics, outcomes research, and additional services for biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers; pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, micro feed ingredients, and other products to the companion animal and production animal markets; and sales force services to manufacturers.