Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Buys 5,143 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 25.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 24,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,143 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $4,296,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Celanese by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,809,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,300,907,000 after buying an additional 468,003 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,077,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,031,776,000 after acquiring an additional 354,367 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,337,115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,761,567,000 after purchasing an additional 329,740 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,529,064 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,325,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its position in Celanese by 43.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,137,688 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $953,653,000 after purchasing an additional 1,852,099 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on CE. Mizuho upped their price target on Celanese from $161.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $158.00 price target on shares of Celanese in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $171.00 to $176.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Barclays lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $159.41.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE CE opened at $132.88 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $149.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $152.46. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $109.38 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $14.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.31, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.30.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.17. Celanese had a net margin of 18.60% and a return on equity of 14.00%. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.67 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 11.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.41%.

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.