UniSuper Management Pty Ltd Grows Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 87.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,276 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,248 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,819,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management raised its stake in 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 last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $521,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 12.5% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 147,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $19,986,000 after acquiring an additional 16,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 157.8% in 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. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on CE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup raised Celanese to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $57.14 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $45.94 and a 12-month high of $172.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $61.62 and a 200 day moving average of $84.34.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. 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.