Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Stockholders' Equity

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Stockholders' Equity
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2013
Stockholders' Equity Attributable to Parent [Abstract]  
Stockholders' Equity
Stockholders' Equity
 
The Company has 10,000,000 authorized shares of preferred stock at $.001 par value. At December 31, 2013, there were no preferred shares outstanding.

The Company's Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program for up to 4,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock from time to time on the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. No duration has been placed on the repurchase program. The Company has 1,667,724 available shares remaining under the program for repurchases as of December 31, 2013. The Company reserves the right to discontinue the repurchase program at any time. During the year ended December 31, 2013, the Company did not repurchase any shares through this publicly announced program.

As a component of the employee stock compensation plan, employees can use shares of stock which have vested to satisfy minimum statutory tax withholding obligations. As part of this plan, the Company repurchased 344,064 shares at an aggregate cost of $19,779 in 2013 and 287,804 shares at an aggregate cost of $12,741 in 2012. These shares are included in the Company's treasury stock.

In April 2013, the Company completed the acquisition of AcariaHealth and as a result, issued 1,716,690 shares of Centene common stock to the selling stockholders. Additionally, the Company filed an equity shelf registration statement related to funding the escrow account for the acquisition and sold 342,640 shares of Centene common stock for $15,225.