LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. Has $614,000 Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. lessened its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 83.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 19,925 shares during the period. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $614,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Artemis Investment Management LLP increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 30.9% in the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 155,551 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $24,168,000 after buying an additional 36,701 shares during the period. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese in the third quarter valued at about $7,879,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 39.1% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 38,334 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,812,000 after buying an additional 10,775 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 14.1% in the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 131,751 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,590,000 after buying an additional 16,253 shares during the period. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 142.1% in the fourth quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 184 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 108 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler raised Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $135.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Monday, February 26th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Celanese in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Bank of America lowered Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $124.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $149.56.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 597 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $156.43 per share, with a total value of $93,388.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,814,588. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 597 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $156.43 per share, with a total value of $93,388.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,814,588. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly purchased 1,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $156.69 per share, with a total value of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 57,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,934,933.87. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Celanese Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of Celanese stock traded up $1.69 on Thursday, hitting $156.13. The company had a trading volume of 115,046 shares, compared to its average volume of 691,140. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.37. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $99.33 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $158.88 and a 200-day moving average of $145.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.59 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The business’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 13th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.64%.

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.