Centene aims for 3x debt ratio, but reserves most cash for stock buys

By Devika Patel

Knoxville, Tenn., Dec. 14 – Centene Corp. plans to continue reducing leverage in 2024, having cut its leverage ratio to 2.8x from 3.5x two years ago, but most extra capital will go towards share repurchases next year.

Management hopes to get the leverage ratio below 3x in 2024.

“We also reduced debt to adjusted EBITDA to 2.8x as of Sept. 30, compared to 3.5x in late 2021, and we got a Fitch upgrade to investment grade in 2022,” chief financial officer Andrew L. Asher said on the company’s investor day conference call on Tuesday.

“We plan to continue to manage our debt to adjusted EBITDA metric to 3x or less, but our primary method of capital deployment in 2024 is expected to be share repurchase,” he said.

Centene is a St. Louis-based health care enterprise.

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