Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Purchased by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 51.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 14,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,057 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,030,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 103.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. CKW Financial Group increased its holdings in Celanese by 52.9% in the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its holdings in Celanese by 43.2% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its holdings in Celanese by 51.1% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 382 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Celanese by 81.4% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 534 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $50.91 on Monday. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $49.22 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $66.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $94.37.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -0.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CE. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho cut 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. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.31.

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.