3,967 Shares in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Bought by Allianz SE

Allianz SE acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 3,967 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $275,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CE. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 6.5% during the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,814,000 after buying an additional 9,782 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $521,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Celanese by 12.5% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 147,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,986,000 after buying an additional 16,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 157.8% during the 4th quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $701,000 after purchasing an additional 6,197 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CE. Barclays lowered their price objective on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.94.

Celanese Price Performance

CE stock opened at $57.14 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $61.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.34. The firm has a market cap of $6.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $45.94 and a 1 year high of $172.10.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share 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. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -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.