Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Purchased by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV raised its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 155.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 130,037 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned approximately 0.20% of Celanese worth $29,049,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 2.8% during the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $492,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. grew its position in shares of Celanese by 2.7% in the second quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 3,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Jacobi Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 3.1% in the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 3,188 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $548,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its position in Celanese by 13.4% during the second quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 839 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 20.4% in the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 585 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on CE. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Vertical Research downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $121.35.

Celanese Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE CE opened at $73.94 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $72.94 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $123.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $134.89. The stock has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a PE ratio of 7.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 6.28 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.