210,461 Shares in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Purchased by ING Groep NV

ING Groep NV acquired a new position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 210,461 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,566,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 128.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 5.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $308,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 0.7% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,954,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the period. Neumann Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 5.3% during the third quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $408,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 3.2% during the third 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 period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CE. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Vertical Research downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.53.

Celanese Trading Down 4.4 %

NYSE CE opened at $52.51 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $97.67. The stock has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.17. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $51.51 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.01%. On average, analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -20.10%.

About Celanese

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.