ProShare Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 24.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,798 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 6,895 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC's holdings in Celanese were worth $2,408,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $521,000 after buying an additional 351 shares during the last quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,124 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $701,000 after buying an additional 6,197 shares during the last quarter. New England Research & Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $768,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 91.8% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 126,660 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $8,766,000 after buying an additional 60,621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 14.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 281,709 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $38,300,000 after buying an additional 34,658 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price 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, Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and cut their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $61.94.

Celanese Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of CE traded down $1.10 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $52.46. 1,409,368 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,191,843. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $153.71. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $48.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.78. The firm has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.77, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The company had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.08 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -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.