Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) Shares Acquired by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 274.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,374 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 22,260 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Celanese were worth $1,725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. State of Wyoming increased its position in Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. increased its position in Celanese by 127.0% during the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 622 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC increased its position in Celanese by 739.1% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the period. Finally, American National Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Celanese during the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on CE shares. 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 research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Celanese from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Celanese from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $66.50.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE CE traded up $1.56 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $58.66. 1,419,327 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,648,839. The business's 50 day moving average is $56.38 and its 200-day moving average is $56.13. Celanese Corporation has a 1 year low of $36.29 and a 1 year high of $144.59. The company has a market capitalization of $6.42 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.94.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.54% and a positive return on equity of 11.28%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.08 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th will be given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 29th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is presently -0.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The stock was 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 directly owned 15,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

About Celanese

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.