New York State Teachers Retirement System Has $14.46 Million Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 106,347 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,724 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.10% of Celanese worth $14,459,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 109.2% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 24,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,133,000 after acquiring an additional 12,553 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 122,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,011,000 after acquiring an additional 15,643 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 447.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,072 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 5,781 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 41.4% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 128,423 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,071,000 after acquiring an additional 37,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 264.2% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 19,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,342,000 after acquiring an additional 14,103 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays decreased their price target 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. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.44.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $124.81 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $129.74 and its 200 day moving average is $138.70. 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 company has a market capitalization of $13.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $114.05 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.17 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.94%.

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.