Blue Trust Inc. Increases Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 15.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,476 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 192 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $102,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CE. DT Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 128.8% in the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Celanese by 103.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 124.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 401 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its position in Celanese by 51.1% during the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 534 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CE shares. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America raised shares of Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.06.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock opened at $68.98 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $69.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $102.99. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $64.05 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $7.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.94, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.11 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.