V Square Quantitative Management LLC Has $425,000 Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,161 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CE. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the second quarter worth $28,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Key Financial Inc boosted its position 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 worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter worth about $40,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Citigroup lowered their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $152.87.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $135.97 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $110.76 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The company’s 50-day moving average is $129.75 and its 200 day moving average is $140.88.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.17 EPS. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

Celanese Company 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.