Vanguard Group Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its holdings in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 9.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,003,764 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 1,187,146 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 10.98% of Celanese worth $681,454,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CE. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,168,000. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 102.4% during the 4th quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,461 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $447,000 after purchasing an additional 3,269 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 25.1% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 352,412 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $24,391,000 after acquiring an additional 70,703 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 62.4% in the 4th quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 10,193 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $705,000 after acquiring an additional 3,917 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter worth approximately $123,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $52.00 price target on shares of Celanese and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $55.00 to $47.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $59.94.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE stock traded down $0.08 during trading on Friday, hitting $42.54. The company had a trading volume of 1,772,997 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,658,702. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $54.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 2.05. Celanese Corporation has a one year low of $36.29 and a one year high of $142.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.06. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 10.48% and a negative net margin of 16.30%. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.38 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 1,479 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost 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 in the company, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This represents a 10.57% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

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.