Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank lessened its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 324,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 6,200 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Celanese were worth $44,065,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CE. KBC Group NV grew its stake in Celanese by 155.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,049,000 after buying an additional 130,037 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its position in shares of Celanese by 21.7% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,744,000 after acquiring an additional 41,598 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 14,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Celanese by 608.2% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. KeyCorp lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.59.

Celanese Stock Up 0.9 %

CE opened at $72.86 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market cap of $7.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.33, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $71.38 and a one year high of $172.16. The business’s fifty day moving average is $118.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $132.00.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. Celanese’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.84%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

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.