New Age Alpha Advisors LLC Makes New $1.74 Million Investment in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 25,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,736,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. CKW Financial Group increased its stake in Celanese by 52.9% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,476 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in 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 period. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its position in Celanese by 43.2% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Celanese by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 21,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,470,000 after buying an additional 230 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CE shares. Vertical Research raised shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $57.14 on Monday. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $45.94 and a 12-month high of $172.10. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $84.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.25 billion, a PE ratio of -4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. As a group, analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -0.86%.

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.