Groupama Asset Managment Acquires 13,013 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Groupama Asset Managment boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 434.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,007 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 13,013 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,092,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3.1% in 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 last quarter. Zacks Investment Management increased its stake in Celanese by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,814,000 after acquiring an additional 9,782 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $521,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 157.8% during the 4th quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $701,000 after acquiring an additional 6,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 116.0% in the fourth quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 15,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,066,000 after purchasing an additional 8,269 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Performance

Celanese stock opened at $56.79 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of -4.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $60.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $82.98. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.94 and a fifty-two week high of $171.68.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results 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. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. 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 payout ratio is -0.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the subject of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Celanese to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.94.

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.