Yousif Capital Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Yousif Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 166.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,273 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 20,144 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,832,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in Celanese in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. State of Wyoming raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 122.5% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 739.1% in the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the period. American National Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Celanese in the first quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Caption Management LLC purchased a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.94.

Celanese Trading Down 4.0%

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $54.58 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $48.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.27. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $36.29 and a 52-week high of $147.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a market cap of $5.97 billion, a PE ratio of -3.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.13.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This trade represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Celanese Company Profile

Celanese Corporation, a chemical and specialty materials company, manufactures and sells high performance engineered polymers in the United States and internationally. It operates through Engineered Materials and Acetyl Chain. The Engineered Materials segment develops, produces, and supplies specialty polymers for automotive and medical applications, as well as for use in industrial products and consumer electronics.