Toronto Dominion Bank Purchases 10,798 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 22.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 58,476 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 10,798 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank owned 0.05% of Celanese worth $4,047,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dodge & Cox lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $942,506,000 after acquiring an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Celanese by 266.7% during the 4th quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $242,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $162,274,000 after buying an additional 2,293,764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 2,033,025 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE CE traded up $0.92 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $54.70. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,097,369 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,220,672. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $47.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.31. The firm has a market cap of $5.98 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $36.29 and a 52 week high of $150.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.08 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is currently -0.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost 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 $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets raised Celanese from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and upped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $55.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Celanese from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.94.

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.