Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Bought by Lifeworks Advisors LLC

Lifeworks Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 43.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,139 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 5,836 shares during the period. Lifeworks Advisors LLC's holdings in Celanese were worth $1,325,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 27.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $611,931,000 after acquiring an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 7.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $353,145,000 after acquiring an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Celanese by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,037,757 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $71,823,000 after acquiring an additional 46,856 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Celanese by 608.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $93,754,000 after acquiring an additional 592,196 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $55.28. 2,280,625 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,232,923. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $45.94 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.97, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $91.70.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.25 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 $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Equities analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Celanese's payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup raised shares of Celanese to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $72.31.

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.