Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Position Lowered by Tredje AP fonden

Tredje AP fonden reduced its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 50.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,093 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 14,092 shares during the quarter. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in Celanese were worth $975,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Celanese by 608.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after acquiring an additional 592,196 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 139.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,453,000 after purchasing an additional 298,596 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter worth approximately $14,566,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays cut their price target on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.31.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE opened at $57.10 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $45.94 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $63.63 and its 200-day moving average is $89.02. 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 (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently -0.86%.

Celanese 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.