Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Stock Holdings Increased by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 6.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,375 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,137 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $715,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 52.9% in the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Celanese by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,476 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Celanese by 103.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 43.2% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Up 0.5 %

CE stock opened at $57.10 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a PE ratio of -4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $45.94 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.25. 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 (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion during 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%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. KeyCorp upgraded 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. 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 research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.18.

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.