Connable Office Inc. Invests $213,000 in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Connable Office Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,073 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,118,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in Celanese by 51.5% in the 4th quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 14,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after buying an additional 5,057 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at about $540,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund bought a new stake in Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at about $962,000. Finally, Fisher Funds Management LTD bought a new stake in Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,238,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on CE. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Citigroup raised shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.31.

Celanese Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $50.91 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.57 billion, a PE ratio of -3.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $49.22 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $94.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. 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.