Centene (NYSE:CNC) Shares Down 2.7% – Should You Sell?

Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) shares dropped 2.7% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $62.08 and last traded at $62.13. Approximately 555,103 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 88% from the average daily volume of 4,685,616 shares. The stock had previously closed at $63.86.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on CNC. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Centene from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $53.00 to $64.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Centene from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price objective (down previously from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Centene from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.85.

Centene Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.07, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.53. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $59.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.65.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last posted its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $40.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.78 billion. Centene had a return on equity of 13.85% and a net margin of 2.03%. Centene’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Centene

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CNC. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its holdings in Centene by 75.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. Pinney & Scofield Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Centene during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Centene in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Centene in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Rialto Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Centene during the 4th quarter worth $30,000. 93.63% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.