Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,367 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,171,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 27.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Celanese by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter worth about $222,815,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,688,619 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $116,869,000 after purchasing an additional 82,860 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE opened at $56.79 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of -4.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $60.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $82.98. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $45.94 and a 52-week high of $171.68.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

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

Celanese Company 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.