Short Interest in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Drops By 5.2%

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,750,000 shares, a drop of 5.2% from the May 15th total of 5,010,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 665,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.1 days. Currently, 4.4% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its position in Celanese by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 327 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in Celanese by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 979 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $152,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Celanese by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. raised its position in Celanese by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 13,733 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in Celanese by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CE. StockNews.com raised shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $158.00 target price on shares of Celanese in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price (up from $135.00) on shares of Celanese in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $175.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $161.41.

Celanese Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $139.17 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $153.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $153.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Celanese has a one year low of $105.15 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $15.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.66, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.34.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.67 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.60% and a return on equity of 14.00%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.01 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 11.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.41%.

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.