Headlands Technologies LLC Makes New $496,000 Investment in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 3,679 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $496,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth approximately $78,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Celanese by 53.1% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 90,846 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,115,000 after acquiring an additional 31,504 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,009,106 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,805,000 after purchasing an additional 56,085 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,037 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $317,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 106,616 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,018,000 after purchasing an additional 5,374 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Celanese from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $153.13.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE:CE opened at $119.88 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $110.76 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $13.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.60, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $131.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $146.19.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.33). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.17 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.41%.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company 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.