HighTower Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Celanese Corporation $CE

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors LLC significantly increased its stake in Celanese Corporation by 95.2% in Q1, now owning 35,946 shares valued at $2.04 million.
• Celanese reported earnings per share of $1.44 for the last quarter, exceeding analyst estimates, with a revenue of $2.53 billion, reflecting a 4.5% year-over-year decline.
• Wall Street analysts have significantly adjusted their price targets for Celanese stock, with an average target of $59.94, indicating mixed sentiment around its future performance.

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 95.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 35,946 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 17,535 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in Celanese were worth $2,041,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CE. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $409,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Celanese by 12.7% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 273,767 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $18,947,000 after acquiring an additional 30,952 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Celanese by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,599,615 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $110,704,000 after purchasing an additional 275,488 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 30,149 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,087,000 after acquiring an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Tennessee Department of Treasury raised its holdings in Celanese by 35.9% in the 4th quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 29,272 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,026,000 after acquiring an additional 7,729 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $66.00 to $49.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Celanese and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Alembic Global Advisors set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Celanese in a research report on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $59.39.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE traded up $0.78 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $47.65. The stock had a trading volume of 1,801,054 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,777,356. The company has a market capitalization of $5.22 billion, a PE ratio of -3.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.10. Celanese Corporation has a 1 year low of $36.29 and a 1 year high of $142.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $53.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $52.16. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.30% and a positive return on equity of 10.48%. The firm's revenue was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.38 earnings per share. Celanese has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.100-1.400 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 29th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is -0.81%.

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.