Rhumbline Advisers Purchases 70,073 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 35.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 266,762 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 70,073 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned approximately 0.24% of Celanese worth $15,144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. State of Wyoming increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 122.5% in the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 739.1% during the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Caption Management LLC purchased a new stake in Celanese in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 200.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 746 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This trade represents 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 link. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CE. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Celanese from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Mizuho set a $45.00 price target on shares of Celanese in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $61.94.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE traded up $1.52 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $56.98. 2,098,724 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,233,670. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $36.29 and a 52 week high of $150.31. The firm has a market cap of $6.23 billion, a PE ratio of -4.09, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.13. The company's 50 day moving average price is $47.37 and its 200-day moving average price is $58.86.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The company's revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.08 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

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