Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Has $7.90 Million Stock Position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Key Points

• Applied Finance Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE) by 4.5%, selling 6,576 shares and now owning approximately 0.13% of the company worth $7.89 million.
• Celanese's latest earnings report showed earnings per share (EPS) of $0.57, surpassing analysts' expectations of $0.37, although revenue was down 8.5% year-over-year.
• Recent price target revisions for Celanese by various research firms include a boost from Bank of America to $61.00 and an upgrade by BMO Capital Markets from "underperform" to "market perform."

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 4.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 139,139 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 6,576 shares during the quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.13% of Celanese worth $7,899,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. State of Wyoming raised its holdings in Celanese by 122.5% in the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in Celanese by 127.0% in the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 622 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 739.1% in the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the period. Finally, American National Bank & Trust bought a new position in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at about $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 15,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This represents a 10.57% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CE traded down $1.32 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $55.65. 523,886 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,794,408. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.94. The company has a market cap of $6.09 billion, a PE ratio of -3.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.14. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $56.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.91. Celanese Corporation has a 1-year low of $36.29 and a 1-year high of $144.59.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.54% and a positive return on equity of 11.28%. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th will be given a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 29th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is currently -0.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on CE. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Celanese from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $55.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $66.50.

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.