Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC Takes Position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Key Points

• Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC has acquired 15,150 shares of Celanese Corporation, valued at approximately $860,000, marking it as the firm's 28th largest holding.
• Several hedge funds significantly increased their stakes in Celanese, with Dodge & Cox raising its stake by 100.3%, now owning over $942 million worth of the stock.
• Celanese reported an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.57 for the latest quarter, beating analysts' expectations, but experienced an 8.5% year-over-year decrease in revenue.

Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 15,150 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $860,000. Celanese makes up 0.0% of Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CE. Dodge & Cox boosted its position in Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $942,506,000 after buying an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $242,681,000 after buying an additional 2,550,334 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in 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 valued at $162,274,000 after buying an additional 2,293,764 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Celanese by 105.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $274,714,000 after buying an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 9,132.0% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,801,349 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $102,263,000 after buying an additional 1,781,837 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Celanese from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Celanese from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $46.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $66.00 to $49.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up from $53.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $65.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 1,479 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president directly owned 15,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at $807,120.24. This represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Celanese Trading Down 14.0%

NYSE:CE traded down $6.64 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $40.78. The stock had a trading volume of 9,475,429 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,816,491. Celanese Corporation has a one year low of $36.29 and a one year high of $142.54. 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 has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10. The business's 50 day moving average is $55.94 and its 200-day moving average is $54.36.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.06. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.54% and a positive return on equity of 11.28%. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.38 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 29th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is -0.79%.

Celanese Company 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.