Retirement Systems of Alabama Cuts Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Retirement Systems of Alabama cut its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 0.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 189,359 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 189 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Celanese were worth $13,106,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CE. DT Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Celanese by 128.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 103.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 52.9% during the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its stake in Celanese by 43.2% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in Celanese by 124.0% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 401 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.06.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE CE opened at $68.06 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.17. 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 52-week low of $64.05 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The company has a fifty day moving average of $69.83 and a 200-day moving average of $102.75.

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.