Van ECK Associates Corp Acquires 230 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DT Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 128.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its stake in Celanese by 5.2% in the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $308,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 0.7% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,954,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 5.3% in the third quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $408,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 3.2% in the third quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $715,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in 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 research note on Thursday. StockNews.com cut shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, 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 research report on Thursday, December 5th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.53.

Celanese Price Performance

CE stock opened at $52.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $51.24 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $68.25 and its 200 day moving average is $97.16. The firm has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.17.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. Research analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -20.10%.

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.