Centene Co. (NYSE:CNC – Get Rating) Director Richard A. Gephardt sold 3,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $264,033.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 37,260 shares in the company, valued at $2,981,172.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Shares of CNC traded up $1.77 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $83.64. 2,914,213 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,909,527. Centene Co. has a one year low of $59.67 and a one year high of $89.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $82.28 and a 200 day moving average of $82.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $48.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.19, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.52.

Centene (NYSE:CNC – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 26th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.15. Centene had a net margin of 1.12% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The business had revenue of $37.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.48 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. Centene’s revenue was up 24.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Centene Co. will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Centene declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Friday, June 17th that allows the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 6.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

CNC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Centene in a research note on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Centene from $112.00 to $103.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Credit Suisse Group raised shares of Centene from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $86.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Centene from $88.00 to $91.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Centene in a report on Thursday, May 26th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $108.00 price target for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.44.

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Centene by 1.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,607,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,355,094,000 after acquiring an additional 1,121,697 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Centene by 7.9% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 50,535,746 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,254,604,000 after acquiring an additional 3,683,887 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 1.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 41,847,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,523,119,000 after purchasing an additional 689,076 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Centene by 14.3% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 26,720,429 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,249,594,000 after purchasing an additional 3,350,045 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Centene by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,533,423 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,021,554,000 after purchasing an additional 769,329 shares in the last quarter. 92.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Centene Company Profile (Get Rating)

Centene Corporation operates as a multi-national healthcare enterprise that provides programs and services to under-insured and uninsured individuals in the United States. Its Managed Care segment offers health plan coverage to individuals through government subsidized programs, including Medicaid, the State children’s health insurance program, long-term services and support, foster care, and medicare-medicaid plans, which cover dually eligible individuals, as well as aged, blind, or disabled programs.

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