Norden Group LLC Acquires 1,722 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Norden Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 102.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,722 shares during the quarter. Norden Group LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $235,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 27.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 7.3% in 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 last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $134,723,000 after buying an additional 69,606 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after acquiring an additional 592,196 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on CE. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Celanese from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Celanese to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.31.

Celanese Trading Up 2.5 %

NYSE CE opened at $48.19 on Wednesday. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $45.94 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $5.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $66.25 and its 200-day moving average is $93.57.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

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.