Curbstone Financial Management Corp Trims Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Curbstone Financial Management Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 11.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the period. Curbstone Financial Management Corp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $548,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CE. CKW Financial Group grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 19,639 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,359,000 after acquiring an additional 2,261 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 139.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,453,000 after acquiring an additional 298,596 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Celanese by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,476 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $102,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Celanese by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Bank of America raised shares of Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.82.

Celanese Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:CE opened at $74.12 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $70.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.28. The company has a market cap of $8.10 billion, a PE ratio of 7.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.18. Celanese Co. has a twelve month low of $64.05 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued 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 return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.11 EPS for the current 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.