KBC Group NV Has $29.05 Million Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

KBC Group NV lifted its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 155.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 213,657 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 130,037 shares during the period. KBC Group NV owned 0.20% of Celanese worth $29,049,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CE. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 0.6% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $2,560,608,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Celanese by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,058,447,000 after purchasing an additional 21,085 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 14.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $156,663,000 after acquiring an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Celanese by 0.8% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in Celanese by 14.1% during the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 378,507 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $51,057,000 after purchasing an additional 46,732 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CE. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $151.00 to $101.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Celanese from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. KeyCorp cut Celanese from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $121.35.

Celanese Stock Down 0.2 %

CE traded down $0.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $73.78. 2,370,429 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 923,901. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $72.78 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $8.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.42, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $121.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $133.88.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.50 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese's payout ratio is 28.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 6.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Celanese 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.