JPMorgan Chase & Co. Boosts Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 5.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,688,619 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 82,860 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 1.54% of Celanese worth $116,869,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CE. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position 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 buying an additional 194 shares during the period. CKW Financial Group boosted its holdings in shares of 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 stake in shares of Celanese by 43.2% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Celanese by 200.8% during the 4th 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, Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new position in Celanese during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $103,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.94.

Celanese Trading Up 2.0 %

NYSE:CE opened at $56.79 on Thursday. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $45.94 and a 52 week high of $171.68. The stock has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.08, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $60.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $82.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 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 analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. 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 business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio 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.