What smart money is saying about Centene
3 funds in our archive have pitched Centene, most recently Harris Associates U.S. Concentrated Strategy in June 2026.
Centene Corporation operates as a managed care company that provides programs and services to under-insured families, and commercial organizations in the United States. It operates through four segments: Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other. The Medicaid segment offers the temporary assistance for needy families; medicaid expansion; aged, blind, or disabled; and children's health insurance programs, as well as long-term services and supports; foster care; and medicare-medicaid plans. This segment also provides healthcare products and services. The Medicare segment offers special needs and medicare supplement, and prescription drug plans. The Commercial segment provides health insurance marketplace product for individual and commercial group. The Other segment operates clinical healthcare and pharmacies, as well as offers vision and dental, behavioral health, and centralized services. It provides services through primary and specialty care physicians, hospitals, behavioral health practitioners, and ancillary providers. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.
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Fund signal · last 12 months
12 lettersToo few moves on Centene yet for a clear signal
Moves described in fund letters in our archive. A sentence published word for word by several funds of one house in the same quarter counts once.
Position history
Between Q4 2024 and Q3 2026, 15 fund letters reported a position in Centene, with 2 buys (opened or added) and 1 sell (trimmed or exited).
| Quarter | Letters | Bought | Sold | Theses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Q2 2026 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Q1 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Q2 2025 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Q4 2024 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Bought and Sold count moves: the same sentence published by several funds of one house in a quarter counts once.
Fund activity · 15 positions · 4 moves
- September 2026
“• Managed care provider Centene was added to the portfolio as we believe margins have a credible path to recovery over the next several years as Medicare reimbursement rates catch up with underlying cost trends across its covered population.”
Centene - HoldsPacker & Co Investigator TrustJune 2026
Listed in Packer & Co Investigator Trust’s reported holdings.
Centene - June 2026
“• Centene was a contributor during the quarter.”
Centene - June 2026
“Centene Corp. (CNC) is a managed care organization focused on the Medicaid market, with approximately 28 million at-risk enrollees and one of the largest Medicaid market share among publicly traded peers. It is a capital-light business well positioned to potentially benefit as the U.S. continues shifting healthcare toward government-funded, cost-controlled programs. Centene outperformed sharply this quarter as adjusted EPS beat consensus by 48%, management raised full-year guidance, and investors gained confidence that the Medicaid margin recovery and ACA membership reset were both tracking ahead of plan.”
Centene - HoldsOakmark Select FundJune 2026
“Centene was the top contributor during the quarter.”
Centene - June 2026
Listed in Oakmark Equity and Income Fund’s reported holdings.
Centene - June 2026
“After a trying 2025 for Centene and Elevance, our conviction to stay the course with both positions has begun to pay dividends for the portfolio.”
Centene - TrimmedKopernik Global All-Cap FundJune 2026
“Positive contributors to the Fund included two U.S.-managed care companies, Centene Corp (“Centene”) and Molina Healthcare Inc (“Molina”), which had total returns of 98.8% and 70.7%, respectively. Centene contributed 0.7% to total Fund returns, while Molina contributed 0.2%. Two Southeast Asian conglomerates also contributed positively: LG Corp, a large South Korean family-owned conglomerate known as a chaebol, had a total return of 21.7%, a 0.5% contribution, while CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate with multiple business segments, had a total return of 13.7%, a 0.2% contribution. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc (“Franklin Resources”), a U.S.-based asset manager, had a total return of 47.3%, a 0.3% contribution, and Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd, which owns the Pebble Project in Alaska, the largest undeveloped copper/gold project in the world, had a total return of 36.3%, a 0.4% contribution. We trimmed the Fund’s positions in Centene and Franklin Resources on strength, eliminated the Fund’s position in Molina as the price approached Kopernik’s estimate of its risk-adjusted intrinsic value, and took advantage of price volatility in LG Corp to add and trim opportunistically.”
Centene - New positionDiamond Hill Small-Mid Cap FundJune 2026
“• We initiated a position in managed care provider Centene as we believe managed care margins now have a realistic path to recovery over the next few years as reimbursement rates catch up with underlying cost trends across the insured population.”
Centene - New positionDiamond Hill Mid Cap FundJune 2026
“• We initiated a position in managed care provider Centene as we believe managed care margins now have a realistic path to recovery over the next few years as reimbursement rates catch up with underlying cost trends across the insured population.”
Centene - June 2026
“Centene was another significant contributor.”
Centene - June 2026
“While we had nice gains in Acadia Healthcare, Centene, Green Brick Partners and TD SYNNEX, we attribute these mostly to the market lifting the stocks rather than to specific company developments, though Centene did have surprisingly strong results.”
Centene - June 2025
“The holding with the lowest contribution to active return was Centene Corporation (CNC), a managed care organization (MCO) specializing in government-sponsored plans. Historically, health insurance has been a steady business that generates consistent free cash flow (CNC has produced positive FCF since 1998), and we believe CNC stands out as the prime MCO beneficiary of any future economic weakness. The company is the leading provider of Medicaid managed care plans with 17% market share, and it also owns the leading individual exchange franchise. When the economy stumbles, CNC’s revenues should increase as more individuals qualify for CNC’s plans. We are particularly encouraged by the new management’s focus on shareholder value–since the founder stepped down in Q4 2021, the company has divested seven businesses for more than $3.5B and deployed the proceeds into share repurchases. Despite these strong long-term fundamentals, Centene’s stock declined. This was primarily due to ongoing challenges in its Medicaid business, where the medical loss ratio continued to deteriorate due to a mismatch between reimbursement rates and patient acuity following redeterminations, with Medicaid membership declining -14% even as exchange enrollment grew 22%. While management remains confident this pressure is temporary and all states have acknowledged the need to adjust rates to match patient acuity, investors remained concerned about the timing of this recovery. The stock was further pressured by broader health care sector headwinds, including potential policy risks from a Republican sweep and changes to Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Even though the company maintained its fiscal year (FY) 2024 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) guidance of over $6.80 and executed significant share repurchases of $1.6B in Q3 and October (~4.7% of shares outstanding), the stock traded at just 9.4x forward earnings, well below its five-year average of 12x, reflecting near-term investor skepticism. We maintained the position.”
Centene - December 2024
“• Centene was a detractor during the quarter. The U.S.-headquartered managed health care company’s stock price declined despite releas- ing third-quarter results that showed resilient fun- damentals in the face of short-term industry pressure. Centene also issued above consensus guidance for 2025 earnings per share (EPS) at its December investor day. We believe the largest driver of the stock price decline in the quarter was investor concern around how legislative changes following the recent U.S. presidential election could impact the company. In our view, this unease is overly discounted into the share price. We see Centene as having signifi- cant embedded earnings power that can drive continued EPS growth even with a less accom- modative political backdrop.”
Centene - December 2024
“• Centene was a detractor during the quarter.”
Centene
Fund coverage · 3 theses
Centene is a government managed care leader with expected earnings recovery from stabilizing medical costs, better reimbursement, and expense initiatives.
Read the full thesis- Oakmark Equity and Income FundMarch 2026
Centene Corporation is the leading government managed care provider with scale advantages and cyclical margin recovery potential at a discounted valuation.
Read the full thesis - Greenlight CapitalDecember 2024
CNC is trading at a historically low valuation despite its status as the largest Managed Medicaid company, with potential for significant repricing in its core Medicaid business over the next two years amidst current concerns.
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