Alliancebernstein L.P. Has $10.04 Million Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 145,013 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 6,123 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $10,036,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in Celanese by 29.0% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 13,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,873,000 after acquiring an additional 3,100 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Celanese by 5.8% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 9,249 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,258,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in Celanese by 57.5% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,634,000 after purchasing an additional 17,820 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its position in Celanese by 19.8% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $561,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Celanese by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 30,894 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,200,000 after buying an additional 315 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.89.

Celanese Price Performance

Celanese stock opened at $37.69 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.71, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $36.29 and a 12 month high of $169.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $55.65 and its 200-day moving average is $78.48.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.32%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -0.86%.

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.