Centene Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of health care company Centene (NYS: CNC) have popped by as much as 12% today after the company reported third-quarter earnings results that topped market expectations this morning and raised its full-year outlook.

So what: Third-quarter revenue came in at $1.3 billion and earnings per share tallied up to $0.55. Analysts were expecting $1.3 billion in revenue and $0.54 in earnings per share. The portion of premiums spent on medical costs ticked down to 83%.

Now what: The company now expects full-year earnings per share in the range of $2.09 to $2.13, up from the previously guided range of $2.03 to $2.13. Full-year revenue is expected in the ballpark of $5.1 billion to $5.2 billion, up from $5 billion to $5.2 billion. As a follow-up to the results, Wells Fargo came out with an upgrade intraday, moving the stock's rating from market perform to outperform while increasing its valuation range from $30 to $32 up to $39 to $42.

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At the time thisarticle was published

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