Connable Office Inc. Buys New Shares in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

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

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CE. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake 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. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Celanese by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Celanese by 7.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 592,196 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Trading Up 0.7 %

CE opened at $50.91 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a P/E 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $94.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CE. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.31.

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.