Centene (CNC) vs. Its Rivals Financial Analysis

Centene (NYSE:CNC) is one of 233 public companies in the “Healthcare Providers & Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Centene to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Centene and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Centene	$194.78 billion	-$6.67 billion	26.04
Centene Competitors	$21.25 billion	$288.54 million	6.98

Centene has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its rivals. Centene is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Centene and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Centene	0.72%	12.15%	3.28%
Centene Competitors	-7.93%	-141.02%	-1.45%

Risk and Volatility

Centene has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Centene’s rivals have a beta of 0.98, indicating that their average share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Centene and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Centene	1	11	9	0	2.38
Centene Competitors	1855	7709	13281	815	2.55

Centene presently has a consensus price target of $73.80, suggesting a potential downside of 2.93%. As a group, “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies have a potential upside of 11.41%. Given Centene’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Centene has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.6% of Centene shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.8% of shares of all “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Centene shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of shares of all “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Centene beats its rivals on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

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. This segment also provides healthcare products. The Medicare segment offers special needs and medicare supplement, and prescription drug plans. The Commercial segment provides health insurance marketplace product for individual, small, and large group commercials. It also operates clinical healthcare and pharmacies, as well as offers dental and speech therapy services. In addition, the company engages in the government contracts business under the TRICARE program and other healthcare related government contracts. It provides services through primary and specialty care physicians, hospitals, and ancillary providers. Centene Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.