Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Bought by Commonwealth Equity Services LLC

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 22.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,179 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,187 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,189,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 103.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 52.9% during the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its holdings in Celanese by 43.2% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 200.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Down 0.8 %

CE stock opened at $56.76 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a 50-day moving average of $61.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $83.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $45.94 and a 52-week high of $172.10.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on CE. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.94.

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.