Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Acquires New Shares in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. acquired a new stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,614 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $112,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,506,000 after buying an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Celanese by 105.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $274,714,000 after buying an additional 2,033,025 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at $222,815,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Celanese by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,679,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $184,998,000 after buying an additional 73,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Celanese by 4,506.7% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $162,274,000 after buying an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of CE stock opened at $53.56 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $36.29 and a 52-week high of $157.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.86 billion, a PE ratio of -3.84, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.59.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 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 $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently -0.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Celanese from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors upgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $61.44.

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.