Private Portfolio Partners LLC Raises Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Private Portfolio Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 206.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,410 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 3,647 shares during the period. Private Portfolio Partners LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $222,815,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position 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 valued at $1,286,230,000 after acquiring an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 1,453.1% during the 4th quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC now owns 953,802 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $66,013,000 after purchasing an additional 892,391 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 768.8% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 423,887 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,337,000 after purchasing an additional 375,095 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 139.8% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp raised shares of Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE opened at $56.79 on Thursday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.08, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average of $60.61 and a 200 day moving average of $82.98. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.94 and a fifty-two week high of $171.68.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.