Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Acquires 866 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lifted its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 11.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 866 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,171,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Forum Financial Management LP lifted its stake in Celanese by 70.0% during the 2nd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 2,292 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $309,000 after acquiring an additional 944 shares during the period. Key Financial Inc lifted its position in Celanese by 3,933.3% during the second quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in Celanese by 232.5% during the second quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 17,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,347,000 after purchasing an additional 12,167 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Celanese by 10.0% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 45,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,157,000 after purchasing an additional 4,153 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in Celanese by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 585 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays dropped their target price on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Celanese from $161.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $155.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE opened at $130.60 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $133.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market cap of $14.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.19, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $110.76 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.73% and a net margin of 18.24%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.17 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.