Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Stake Trimmed by Retirement Systems of Alabama

Retirement Systems of Alabama trimmed its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 189,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 13,891 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Celanese were worth $25,771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Celanese in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,302,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the third quarter valued at $179,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 29.0% in the third quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 17,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,365,000 after buying an additional 3,906 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 36.3% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 47,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,482,000 after buying an additional 12,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Celanese by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,145,000 after buying an additional 177,552 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Trading Down 0.3 %

Celanese stock opened at $68.63 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $98.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.09. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $67.03 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.50 billion, a PE ratio of 6.90, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.56.

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.