Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 238,161 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,190,910 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 238,161 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.12% of Celanese worth $912,943,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 103.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. CKW Financial Group increased its stake in Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its position in Celanese by 43.2% during the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 200.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 51.1% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 382 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. StockNews.com cut shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE:CE opened at $57.14 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese Co. has a twelve month low of $45.94 and a twelve month high of $172.10. The stock has a market cap of $6.25 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.58.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

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.