Amundi Raises Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Amundi lifted its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 43.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 358,694 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 107,779 shares during the quarter. Amundi’s holdings in Celanese were worth $23,294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Celanese by 608.2% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Celanese by 139.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,453,000 after purchasing an additional 298,596 shares in the last quarter. ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,566,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upgraded shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.31.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE:CE opened at $53.07 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $5.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $64.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $90.08. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $45.94 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. Equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently -0.86%.

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.