Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. Raises Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 169,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,396 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $11,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Celanese by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after buying an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,037,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $71,823,000 after acquiring an additional 46,856 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in Celanese by 139.8% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,453,000 after acquiring an additional 298,596 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock opened at $56.76 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.07, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $45.94 and a 1 year high of $172.10. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $61.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.64.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is -0.86%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CE. Citigroup raised shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays lowered their price objective on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.94.

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.