Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Invests $962,000 in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund purchased a new position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 13,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $962,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Celanese by 103.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group increased its stake in Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co increased its stake in Celanese by 43.2% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its stake in Celanese by 51.1% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 81.4% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on CE shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.31.

Celanese Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of CE opened at $52.71 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.76 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.78, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $50.82 and a one year high of $172.16. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $67.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $95.42.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

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.