Korea Investment CORP Has $4.06 Million Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Korea Investment CORP boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 20.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 58,663 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Celanese were worth $4,060,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 103.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. CKW Financial Group boosted its position in Celanese by 52.9% during the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co grew its holdings in Celanese by 43.2% during the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 200.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 51.1% in the fourth 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 last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $55.72 on Wednesday. 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 fifty day moving average price is $61.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.64. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $45.94 and a fifty-two week high of $171.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. As a group, analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

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.