Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Corient Private Wealth LLC

Corient Private Wealth LLC cut its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 95.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,562 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 330,880 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,008,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after acquiring an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,145,000 after buying an additional 177,552 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,037,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $71,823,000 after buying an additional 46,856 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Celanese by 139.8% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,453,000 after buying an additional 298,596 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE CE opened at $59.17 on Thursday. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $45.94 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $85.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The company has a market cap of $6.47 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on CE. Morgan Stanley cut their target price 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. Citigroup raised shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.67.

About Celanese

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.