Celanese Corporation $CE Shares Sold by LPL Financial LLC

Key Points

• LPL Financial LLC has reduced its stake in Celanese Corporation by 16.4%, now holding 39,204 shares valued at $2.23 million.
• Several institutional investors have increased their positions in Celanese, with notable increases including the State of Wyoming by 122.5% and Mather Group LLC by 127.0%.
• Celanese reported a quarterly EPS of $1.44, exceeding estimates, but saw a 4.5% decline in revenue year-over-year.

LPL Financial LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 16.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 39,204 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 7,681 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC's holdings in Celanese were worth $2,226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. State of Wyoming boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 739.1% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 127.0% during the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 622 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. American National Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Caption Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter worth approximately $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CE shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Citigroup upped their target price on Celanese from $52.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $52.00 target price on Celanese and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Celanese from $55.00 to $47.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Cfra Research raised Celanese to a "moderate sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $59.94.

Celanese Trading Up 8.4%

Shares of Celanese stock traded up $3.7580 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $48.4380. 2,787,210 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,759,174. Celanese Corporation has a 52-week low of $36.29 and a 52-week high of $142.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a fifty day moving average of $53.75 and a 200-day moving average of $52.88. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.38 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Celanese has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.100-1.400 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 29th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is presently -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.