Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC Makes New $220,000 Investment in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,278 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 50,619 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,354,000 after acquiring an additional 10,237 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 15.6% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 21,003 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,641,000 after acquiring an additional 2,836 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 9,948 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,249,000 after acquiring an additional 1,359 shares during the period. Lido Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 3,603 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $452,000 after acquiring an additional 420 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,453,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CE shares. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $161.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective (up from $135.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Four 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $159.41.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $131.68 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $14.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.25, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $109.38 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $149.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $152.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm’s revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.01 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.13%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

Celanese Company 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.