Short Interest in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Drops By 15.9%

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,220,000 shares, a decline of 15.9% from the March 15th total of 8,590,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,600,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days. Approximately 6.5% of the company's stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on CE. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Celanese from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and set a $48.00 target price (down from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $61.33.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Dodge & Cox boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $942,506,000 after acquiring an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at about $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Celanese by 266.7% in the 4th quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $242,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $162,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,764 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 105.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $274,714,000 after buying an additional 2,033,025 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Performance

Celanese stock traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $43.56. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,317,587 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,023,890. 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 has a twelve month low of $36.29 and a twelve month high of $169.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $49.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $71.25. The firm has a market cap of $4.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.13, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. Sell-side analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 28th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -0.86%.

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.