CX Institutional Purchases Shares of 1,684 Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

CX Institutional acquired a new stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 1,684 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $96,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in Celanese by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $942,506,000 after acquiring an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter worth approximately $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Celanese by 266.7% in the 4th quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $242,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 4,506.7% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $162,274,000 after buying an additional 2,293,764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Celanese by 105.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $274,714,000 after buying an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 1,479 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,468 shares in the company, valued at $807,120.24. The trade was a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. BMO Capital Markets raised Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $46.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Celanese from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $63.11.

Celanese Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $56.21 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.04, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $49.01 and its 200 day moving average is $58.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $36.29 and a one year high of $147.86.

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

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently -0.79%.

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.