|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Issue: 1114 Date: 12/29/2011
Become A Fan, Like St. Louis Chinese American News
|
|
Centene among Fortune 500's top performers
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| Michael Neidorff, chairman and CEO of Centene Corp., has seen his company's stock price rise some 28 percent in the last year. |
|
|
Centene Corp. was the only St. Louis-based company to make CNN Money's Top 10 list of Fortune 500 companies for 2011, based on stock closing prices Dec. 9. The company continued its winning ways by hitting a new 52-week high this week.
Centene (NYSE: CNC), which ranks No. 493 on the Fortune 500, ranked No. 10 on this year's performers' list. Shares of Centene have risen 48 percent year-to-date and closed today at $39.85, up from $26.07 a year ago.
The company, led by Chairman and CEO Michael Neidorff, posted a profit of $29 million in the third quarter, up 28 percent from a year earlier, due to an increased number of members and expansion into Florida, Illinois, Mississippi and Texas.
Centene, which provides managed care programs and related services to individuals under Medicaid, has more than 1.6 million members. This number could increase substantially in coming years as health reform will likely expand Medicaid eligibility.
The company hit a new 52-week high Tuesday of $39.96, 4.2 percent above its average consensus price target of $38.27. Today, Centene's stock beat that by hitting $40.59 before falling less than 1 percent for the day to close at $39.86. The company hit its 52-week low of $25.08 on Jan. 24.
In other stocks of local interest, trucking company YRC Worldwide (Nasdaq: YRCWD), which has 560 workers in St. Louis, ranked as the worst Fortune 500 stock, losing 99 percent of its value in the last year and earning a place on the worst-performing list for the second straight year. It closed at $9.29 today.
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), one of the largest banks in St. Louis, also ranked in the worst Fortune 500 stocks of 2011. Its stock is down 57 percent year-to-date on CNN Money's report. The stock closed at $5.23 today after hitting a new 52-week low of $4.92 on Monday.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
