First Hawaiian Bank Grows Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

First Hawaiian Bank raised its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 116.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,400 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 8,269 shares during the quarter. First Hawaiian Bank's holdings in Celanese were worth $1,066,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CE. DT Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 128.8% in the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 124.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 401 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 222 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 1,395.3% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 643 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 3rd quarter valued at $89,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Celanese Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CE traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $65.00. 1,939,805 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,267,316. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $74.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $111.94. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $64.05 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. 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 stock has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.18.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company 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%. Celanese's revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.31%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Celanese from a "market perform" rating to an "underperform" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. KeyCorp lowered Celanese from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Vertical Research cut shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $109.33.

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.