New England Research & Management Inc. Buys New Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

New England Research & Management Inc. bought a new stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 11,090 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $768,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position 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 buying an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 valued at $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $353,145,000 after buying an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 7.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Celanese by 608.2% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $93,754,000 after buying an additional 592,196 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays reduced their price target on Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $102.82.

Celanese Trading Up 1.7 %

Celanese stock traded up $1.23 during trading on Thursday, reaching $72.17. 1,002,071 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,900,060. 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's 50 day simple moving average is $70.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $105.54. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $64.05 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $7.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.25, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.18.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released 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). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.