KBC Group NV Buys 298,596 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 139.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 298,596 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Celanese were worth $35,453,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 128.8% in the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 103.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in Celanese by 124.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 401 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its position in Celanese by 1,395.3% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Celanese in the 3rd quarter worth $89,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on CE shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group lowered shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $102.82.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $74.12 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $64.05 and a one year high of $172.16. The company’s 50-day moving average is $70.32 and its 200 day moving average is $106.28.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.50 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.