Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Has $2.31 Million Position in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 29.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 40,641 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 17,353 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC's holdings in Celanese were worth $2,307,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CE. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $521,000 after buying an additional 351 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 91.8% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 126,660 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $8,766,000 after acquiring an additional 60,621 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter worth approximately $7,168,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,118,000. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in Celanese by 87.3% in the fourth quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 26,276 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,819,000 after purchasing an additional 12,248 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Celanese stock traded up $0.32 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $56.87. 3,103,057 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,271,519. The stock has a market cap of $6.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50 day moving average of $51.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. Celanese Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $36.29 and a fifty-two week high of $147.86.

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 for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 11.28% and a negative net margin of 16.54%. The business's revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.08 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -0.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CE shares. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Vertical Research upgraded Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $63.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the company'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 purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

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.