Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Buys Shares of 8,711 Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Key Points

• The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board invested approximately $495,000 to acquire 8,711 shares of Celanese Corporation in the first quarter, according to their most recent 13F filing.
• Celanese recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.03 per share, with an ex-dividend date on July 29th, translating to an annualized dividend yield of 0.3%.
• Wall Street analysts have issued mixed ratings for Celanese, with the average target price for the stock currently at $66.50, indicating a consensus rating of "Hold."

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new stake in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 8,711 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $495,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CE. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew 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 valued at $162,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 1,781,837 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 20.8% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,599,615 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $110,704,000 after acquiring an additional 275,488 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CE has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $66.00 to $49.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $67.00 to $50.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $59.94.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the acquisition, the senior vice president directly owned 15,468 shares in the company, valued at $807,120.24. This represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE stock traded down $0.16 on Thursday, reaching $41.64. The company had a trading volume of 1,283,333 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,836,825. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a PE ratio of -2.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22. Celanese Corporation has a one year low of $36.29 and a one year high of $142.54. The business's 50-day moving average is $55.43 and its 200 day moving average is $54.18.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.30% and a positive return on equity of 10.48%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.38 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 29th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 29th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.