Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Increases Position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 166.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,000 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 15,630 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund's holdings in Celanese were worth $1,419,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dodge & Cox boosted its holdings in Celanese by 100.3% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 105.0% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 266.7% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at about $222,815,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,679,670 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $184,998,000 after purchasing an additional 73,498 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 15,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This trade represents a 10.57% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company's stock.

Celanese Stock Up 3.9%

Celanese stock traded up $2.24 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $60.34. 1,851,387 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,293,873. The company has a market cap of $6.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.14. Celanese Corporation has a twelve month low of $36.29 and a twelve month high of $147.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The company has a fifty day moving average of $54.11 and a 200-day moving average of $56.82.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.08 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is presently -0.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Celanese from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Celanese from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $55.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Citigroup decreased their price objective 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. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $63.00 price objective (up from $53.00) on shares of Celanese in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.50.

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.