Baird Financial Group Inc. Sells 101,694 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Baird Financial Group Inc. cut its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 82.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,244 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 101,694 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,540,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CE. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Celanese in the 4th quarter worth about $222,815,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 4,506.7% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $162,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Celanese by 105.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $274,714,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,025 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Celanese by 891.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,521,564 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $105,308,000 after acquiring an additional 1,368,104 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of NYSE CE traded up $1.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $53.56. 1,513,305 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,165,290. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.84, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.54. Celanese Co. has a twelve month low of $36.29 and a twelve month high of $158.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's payout ratio is -0.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on CE shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Vertical Research raised shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors raised Celanese from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $61.44.

About Celanese

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.