Centene Corporation (CNC)

FairStock Score: 58/100 — STEADY

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I am wary of extrapolating one quarter, but Centene merits a Graham-style look as a turnaround. It is a large managed-care intermediary for Medicaid and Medicare, so scale and government relationships are real advantages, though reimbursement rules and medical-cost trends keep the moat narrow. The filed record is uneven: FY2023 revenue was $140.1B with net income $2.7B; FY2024 revenue was $145.5B with net income $3.3B; FY2025 revenue was $174.6B but produced a $6.7B net loss and EPS of -$13.53. The latest filed fiscal Q2 2026, the quarter ended 2026-06-30, showed $44.4B revenue, $1.1B net income, and EPS $2.19, while fiscal Q1 2026 had $1.5B net income. That hints the loss may be a trough, but one good quarter is not proof. At the 2026-10-26 close, FairStock shows a negative P/E of -6.57, P/B of 1.49, ROE -20.36%, ROCE 2.48%, D/E 0.71, Piotroski 6/9, and Altman Z 1.31—moderate balance-sheet quality, not fortress-like. The standout is TTM free cash flow of $9.0B, a 26.6% FCF yield on a $33.6B market cap. If cash conversion persists and margins normalize, the shares could be undervalued; if medical costs or contract pressures return, the cheap-looking metrics could be a value trap. FairStock's 59/100 score and computed TURNAROUND category—loss in the latest year after earlier profits—fit that view.

In plain English: Centene runs government-backed health insurance programs, mainly Medicaid and Medicare, for lower-income and under-insured people. The business is mixed: revenue is growing and it earned a profit in the latest reported quarter, but it had a large loss in fiscal 2025, so the record is uneven. At the 2026-10-26 close, the price looks low compared with the company's net assets and cash generation is strong, but the large loss makes it hard to say whether the stock is truly cheap.

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Data as of 2026-10-26 close · note generated 2026-10-28 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q2 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-06-30) · fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-03-31) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-09-30) · fiscal Q2 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-06-30) · FY2025 10-K (period ended 2025-12-31) · FY2024 10-K (period ended 2024-12-31) · FY2023 10-K (period ended 2023-12-31)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer