Groupama Asset Managment Purchases 13,013 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Groupama Asset Managment boosted its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 434.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,013 shares during the quarter. Groupama Asset Managment’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,092,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter worth about $222,815,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 27.4% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 1,453.1% during the fourth 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 boosted its position 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 grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 298,596 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on CE. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup raised shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Up 2.0 %

CE opened at $56.79 on Thursday. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $45.94 and a 1-year high of $171.68. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $82.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The company has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of -4.08, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released 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 company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

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