Edgestream Partners L.P. Takes Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 51,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,545,000.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Celanese by 27.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares during the period. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Celanese by 139.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,453,000 after purchasing an additional 298,596 shares during the period. ING Groep NV bought a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth about $14,566,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Celanese by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Vertical Research upgraded Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com cut Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho cut their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.31.

Celanese Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of CE opened at $55.28 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $45.94 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.95.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. Research analysts forecast 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 will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

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.