Wedmont Private Capital Acquires New Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Wedmont Private Capital bought a new position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $286,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. DT Investment Partners LLC raised its position in Celanese by 128.8% during the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese in the second quarter worth $28,000. Mather Group LLC. lifted its position in Celanese by 124.0% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 401 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its holdings in Celanese by 1,395.3% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese during the 3rd quarter worth about $89,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group lowered shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.00.

Celanese Price Performance

Celanese stock opened at $71.94 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.24, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.18. 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 52-week low of $64.05 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $109.60.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Company 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.