Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Makes New $1.38 Million Investment in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 20,000 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $1,384,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dodge & Cox increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 105.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $274,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,033,025 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the fourth quarter worth about $222,815,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,679,670 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $184,998,000 after purchasing an additional 73,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $162,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of NYSE CE traded up $1.35 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $53.56. The stock had a trading volume of 1,513,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,171,097. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market cap of $5.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. The business's fifty day moving average price is $48.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.04. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $36.29 and a 52-week high of $158.08.

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

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend yield of 0.22%. Celanese's payout ratio is -0.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, February 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.44.

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.