Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) Shares Purchased by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 80.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 26,836 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 11,959 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund's holdings in Celanese were worth $1,523,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CE. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. State of Wyoming lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 122.5% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC grew its position in Celanese by 739.1% in the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. American National Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Caption Management LLC purchased a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. BMO Capital Markets raised Celanese from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $55.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group cut their target price on Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $63.00 price objective (up previously from $53.00) on shares of Celanese in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.50.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE CE traded up $0.26 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $60.88. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,082,023 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,288,461. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.94. The company's 50-day moving average is $53.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.06. Celanese Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $36.29 and a fifty-two week high of $147.86. The stock has a market cap of $6.66 billion, a PE ratio of -4.00, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.14.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.54% and a positive return on equity of 11.28%. The company had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.08 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -0.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president directly owned 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 purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.