Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Short Interest Up 8.4% in December

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,140,000 shares, an increase of 8.4% from the November 30th total of 4,740,000 shares. Approximately 4.7% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,200,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its position in Celanese by 155.5% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,049,000 after purchasing an additional 130,037 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management boosted its stake in Celanese by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,814,000 after purchasing an additional 9,782 shares during the period. National Pension Service grew its position in Celanese by 21.7% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,744,000 after purchasing an additional 41,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 7.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Trading Up 1.5 %

CE opened at $69.21 on Thursday. Celanese has a 12-month low of $66.73 and a 12-month high of $172.16. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a PE ratio of 6.96, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $81.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $114.79.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. 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 prior year, the firm earned $2.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.05%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $110.50.

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.