Top Investors Are Growing More Excited About Celanese Corporation (CE)

We at Insider Monkey have gone through 700 13F filings that the hedge funds and prominent investors that we track were required to file for the September 30 period of report. The 13F filings show the investors’ portfolio positions and in this article we look at what those investors collectively think of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) based on that data.

Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) was in 30 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. Celanese Corporation shareholders have witnessed an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. There were 25 hedge funds in our database with Celanese Corporation positions at the end of the previous quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare Celanese Corporation to other stocks including Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG), Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS), and Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) to get a better sense of its popularity.

According to most market participants, hedge funds are perceived as slow, outdated financial tools of years past. While there are more than an 8,000 funds in operation today, we choose to focus on the bigwigs of this group, around 700 funds. It is estimated that this group of investors direct most of the smart money’s total capital, and by tailing their top stock picks, Insider Monkey has revealed a few investment strategies that have historically outperformed the broader indices. Insider Monkey’s small-cap hedge fund strategy surpassed the S&P 500 index by 12 percentage points per annum for a decade in their back tests.

Now, let’s take a glance at the fresh action surrounding Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE).

Hedge fund activity in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

At Q3’s end, a total of 30 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a 20% jump from the second quarter. With hedgies’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or had already accumulated large positions).

Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, GMT Capital, managed by Thomas E. Claugus, holds the most valuable position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE). GMT Capital has a $320.7 million position in the stock, comprising 8.1% of its 13F portfolio. The second-most bullish fund manager is Marshall Wace LLP, managed by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace, which holds a $36.9 million position; 0.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other members of the smart money that are bullish comprise Christopher A. Winham’s Tide Point Capital, Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, and Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group.

As industrywide interest jumped, key money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Luminus Management, managed by Jonathan Barrett and Paul Segal, assembled the biggest position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE). Luminus Management had $19.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management also made a $8.9 million investment in the stock during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, Malcolm Fairbairn’s Ascend Capital, and D E Shaw.

Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG), Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE:KSS), Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), and NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ). This group of stocks’ market caps resemble Celanese Corporation’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $288 million. That figure was $561 million in Celanese Corporation’s case. Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE:COG) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) is the least popular one with only 15 bullish hedge fund positions. Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average and there was more money invested in it than in any of the other stocks. This is a positive signal when coupled with rapidly improving sentiment and makes the stock worthy of consideration for addition to one’s portfolio.