Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. Buys 2,293,764 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 4,506.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. owned 2.14% of Celanese worth $162,274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 34,658 shares in the last quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 29.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 17,397 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,365,000 after acquiring an additional 3,906 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the third quarter worth $179,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the third quarter worth $1,302,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 11.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 128,201 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $17,430,000 after purchasing an additional 13,503 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "underweight" rating and issued a $48.00 target price (down from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.33.

Celanese Stock Performance

Celanese stock traded up $0.19 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $43.69. The company had a trading volume of 718,085 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,018,822. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market cap of $4.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.13, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50 day moving average of $49.50 and a 200-day moving average of $70.81. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $36.29 and a 52 week high of $169.50.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 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 $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. On average, sell-side 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 will be paid on Monday, May 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.27%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

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.