Barclays PLC Grows Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 25.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 352,412 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 70,703 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned 0.32% of Celanese worth $24,391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CE. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co boosted its holdings in Celanese by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 17,397 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,365,000 after buying an additional 3,906 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the third quarter worth $179,000. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,302,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Celanese by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 128,201 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $17,430,000 after buying an additional 13,503 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 148.8% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,724 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 2,825 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE:CE traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $41.49. 1,647,979 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,998,567. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $36.29 and a 52-week high of $169.50. 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's fifty day moving average price is $51.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $73.12. The company has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. 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, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. Celanese's payout ratio is presently -0.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CE shares. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Celanese from $76.00 to $71.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $66.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com lowered Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.33.

Celanese Company Profile

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.