Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 50,188 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $3,474,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Celanese by 103.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. CKW Financial Group raised its position in shares of Celanese by 52.9% during the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its position in shares of Celanese by 43.2% during the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caption Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter worth about $48,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on CE shares. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $61.94.

Celanese Trading Up 3.4%

Celanese stock traded up $1.79 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $54.26. The company's stock had a trading volume of 319,577 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,167,811. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. The stock's fifty day moving average is $48.40 and its 200 day moving average is $61.64. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $36.29 and a 1-year high of $157.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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. 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.08 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company 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 of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is presently -0.79%.

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.