Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC Makes New Investment in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC purchased a new stake in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 7,419 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $421,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in CE. Dodge & Cox grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Celanese by 266.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,033,025 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Celanese Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $56.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 1.11. Celanese Corporation has a 1 year low of $36.29 and a 1 year high of $147.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.19 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $51.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.42.

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

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's payout ratio is currently -0.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Celanese in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Vertical Research upgraded Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $66.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Celanese from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $63.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 1,479 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,468 shares of the company's stock, 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

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.

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