Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Acquired by Bank of America Corp DE

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 8.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 597,557 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 48,115 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 0.55% of Celanese worth $41,357,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at $222,815,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $162,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 105.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $274,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 891.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,521,564 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $105,308,000 after buying an additional 1,368,104 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Piper Sandler restated an "underweight" rating and issued a $48.00 price target (down from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.44.

Celanese Trading Down 2.0%

NYSE CE traded down $1.09 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $52.43. 1,497,198 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,175,038. The stock has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a PE ratio of -3.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $36.29 and a 52 week high of $157.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $48.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.15. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.08 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's payout ratio is -0.79%.

Celanese 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.