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Saint Louis, Missouri-based Centene Corporation (CNC) operates as a healthcare enterprise, providing programs and services to under-insured and uninsured families, commercial organizations, and military families. With a market cap of $17.4 billion, Centene operates through Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other segments.
Centene has substantially underperformed the broader market over the past year. CNC stock has plummeted 43.1% on a YTD basis and 45.7% over the past 52-week period, lagging behind the S&P 500 Index’s ($SPX) surge of 16.5% on a YTD basis and 19.6% over the past year.
Zooming in further, CNC has also lagged behind the SPDR S&P Health Care Services ETF’s (XHS) 15% gains on a YTD basis and 10.3% returns over the past year.
Centene’s stock surged 12.5% in the trading session following the release of its better-than-expected Q3 results on Oct. 29. The company made significant progress against the near-term milestones it laid out for investors in July. Driven by solid premium collection, the company’s topline for the quarter surged 18.2% year-over-year to $49.7 billion, beating the Street’s expectations by 4.4%. Meanwhile, its adjusted EPS dropped from $1.62 in the year-ago quarter to $0.50 but surpassed the consensus estimates by a staggering 338.1%. Further, the company remains focused on driving margin improvement and shareholder value creation.
For the full fiscal 2025, ending in December, analysts expect CNC to deliver an adjusted EPS of $2.01, down 72% year-over-year. The company has a mixed earnings surprise history. While it missed the Street’s bottom-line estimates once over the past four quarters, it surpassed the projections on three other occasions.
Among the 20 analysts covering the CNC stock, the consensus rating is a “Hold.” That’s based on three “Strong Buys,” 14 “Holds,” one “Moderate Sell,” and two “Strong Sells.”
This configuration is slightly less optimistic than a month ago, when only one analyst gave a “Strong Sell” recommendation.
On Oct. 31, TD Cowen analyst Ryan Langston maintained a “Hold” rating on CNC and raised the price target from $30 to $34.
CNC’s mean price target of $38.23 represents a premium of 10.8% from current price levels. Meanwhile, the street-high target of $80 suggests a massive potential upside of 131.9%.
