Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Increases Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 9,546.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 161,873 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 160,195 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $11,203,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in 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 period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 105.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $274,714,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,025 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter worth approximately $222,815,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,679,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $184,998,000 after acquiring an additional 73,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $162,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $51.25 on Monday. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $36.29 and a 52-week high of $161.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.75. The firm has a market cap of $5.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09.

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 negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.08 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -0.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. 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 report on Monday, March 17th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.89.

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.