City Center Advisors LLC Invests $261,000 in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

City Center Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 4,600 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dodge & Cox boosted 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. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 105.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $274,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,033,025 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 266.7% in the fourth quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $242,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Celanese in the fourth quarter worth $222,815,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,679,670 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $184,998,000 after purchasing an additional 73,498 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "underweight" rating and issued a $48.00 target price (down from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays raised their target price on Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $807,120.24. The trade was a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $55.40 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $36.29 and a fifty-two week high of $150.31. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $47.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The stock has a market cap of $6.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.13.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The company's revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.08 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's payout ratio is currently -0.79%.

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.

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