Zions Bancorporation N.A. Buys 921 Shares of Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC)

Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its stake in Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC) by 39.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,251 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 921 shares during the period. Zions Bancorporation N.A.’s holdings in Centene were worth $197,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Centene by 693.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,490,935 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P lifted its position in Centene by 5.7% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 26,314,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,980,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,825 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its stake in Centene by 77.2% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 2,786,770 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,040,000 after buying an additional 1,214,425 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Centene by 80.6% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 2,080,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,056,000 after buying an additional 928,465 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Centene during the 4th quarter worth about $53,736,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on CNC shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Centene from $66.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Centene in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. StockNews.com lowered Centene from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price objective (down from $80.00) on shares of Centene in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Centene from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Centene has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.92.

Centene Price Performance

Shares of CNC stock opened at $60.58 on Thursday. 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 $30.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.71, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $60.04 and its 200-day moving average is $62.88. Centene Co. has a 1 year low of $55.03 and a 1 year high of $80.59.

Centene (NYSE:CNC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.80 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 analysts’ expectations of $38.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Centene Co. will post 6.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.