Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Holdings Boosted by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 15.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,806 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 1,543 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,593,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CE. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Key Financial Inc grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% during the 2nd quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on CE. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $153.13.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE CE opened at $123.14 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a twelve month low of $110.76 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.45 billion, a PE ratio of 6.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $131.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $145.82.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.17 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.