MBB Public Markets I LLC Buys 6,649 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

MBB Public Markets I LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 410.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 8,268 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,649 shares during the period. MBB Public Markets I LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,115,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its holdings in Celanese by 49.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 9,649 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,499,000 after purchasing an additional 3,177 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Celanese by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 11,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,721,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp bought a new position in Celanese in the 4th quarter worth $229,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in Celanese by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 4,995 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $776,000 after acquiring an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Copperwynd Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 4,297 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $668,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $135.96 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $129.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $144.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $110.76 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The stock has a market cap of $14.85 billion, a PE ratio of 7.48, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.30.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.33). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.17 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 10.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.06%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is 15.41%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $153.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.