Centene Corp vs Elevance Health Inc

Centene Corp (CNC) is slightly undervalued and Elevance Health Inc (ELV) is undervalued.

Against our estimates of intrinsic value, ELV trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +33%, against +20% for CNC.

Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.

Centene Corp (CNC)

Its through-the-cycle earnings (2.2% median margin), capitalised at 8.5% with no growth, values the shares at $78.72; the price of $63.30 is 20% below that value.

Leak Score 34/100 on 8 of 12 signals

Elevance Health Inc (ELV)

Discounting its cash flows at 8.0% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $602.54; the price of $402.43 is 33% below that value, and 80% of that value comes from beyond year five.

Leak Score 61/100 on 10 of 12 signals

MetricCNCELV
VerdictSlightly undervaluedUndervalued
Price$63.30$402.43
Intrinsic value$78.72$602.54
Margin of safety+20%+33%
Leak Score34/100 (8/12)61/100 (10/12)
Market cap$31.3B$87.3B
Revenue growth, 5 years11.9%10.3%
Operating margin0.8%3.6%
Net margin-2.5%2.5%
Return on equity-20.4%11.2%
Debt to equity0.710.69
P/E17.9x
Forward P/E11.9x13.6x
P/B1.4x1.9x
Dividend yield1.7%

All stocks in Healthcare Plans