Fifth Third Bancorp Grows Stake in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Fifth Third Bancorp increased its holdings in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) by 115.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,060 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,397 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $571,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Savant Capital LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 37.1% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 4,715 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 1,275 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Celanese by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 21,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after buying an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Celanese by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 46,029 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,165,000 after buying an additional 3,683 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 40.5% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,804 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board boosted its stake in Celanese by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 5,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CE. Vertical Research upgraded Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.11.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $54.55 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $49.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.13. The firm has a market cap of $5.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.13. Celanese Corporation has a 12 month low of $36.29 and a 12 month 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 firm had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 11.28% and a negative net margin of 16.54%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.08 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend yield of 0.22%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.79%.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now owns 15,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,120.24. This trade represents a 10.57% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is currently 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.