Trade-Ideas: Centene (CNC) Is Today's Post-Market Leader Stock
Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.
Trade-Ideas LLC identified
(
) as a post-market leader candidate. In addition to specific proprietary factors, Trade-Ideas identified Centene as such a stock due to the following factors:
- CNC has an average dollar-volume (as measured by average daily share volume multiplied by share price) of $65.3 million.
- CNC is up 3.5% today from today's close.
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More details on CNC:
Centene Corporation operates as a diversified, multi-national healthcare enterprise that provides programs and services to under-insured and uninsured individuals in the United States. It operates in two segments, Managed Care and Specialty Services. CNC has a PE ratio of 27.9. Currently there are 7 analysts that rate Centene a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 9 rate it a hold.
The average volume for Centene has been 1.2 million shares per day over the past 30 days. Centene has a market cap of $7.4 billion and is part of the health care sector and health services industry. The stock has a beta of 0.44 and a short float of 5.4% with 6.02 days to cover. Shares are up 21.8% year-to-date as of the close of trading on Thursday.
Analysis:
rates Centene as a
. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.
Highlights from the ratings report include:
- CNC's very impressive revenue growth greatly exceeded the industry average of 18.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues leaped by 61.2%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
- Powered by its strong earnings growth of 107.14% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 94.84% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, CNC should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
- CENTENE CORP reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, CENTENE CORP increased its bottom line by earning $2.22 versus $1.43 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.60 versus $2.22).
- The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Health Care Providers & Services industry. The net income increased by 101.0% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $53.24 million to $107.00 million.
- The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Health Care Providers & Services industry and the overall market, CENTENE CORP's return on equity exceeds that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
- You can view the full Centene Ratings Report.
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