Stifel Financial Corp Sells 7,689 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Stifel Financial Corp lowered its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 32.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 7,689 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DT Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 128.8% in the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in Celanese in the 2nd quarter worth $28,000. Key Financial Inc lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in Celanese during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. grew its position in shares of Celanese by 124.0% in the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 401 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $67.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $93.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $119.79. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $66.99 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. UBS Group cut Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $110.50.

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.