Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co Increases Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co raised its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,491 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 886 shares during the period. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,820,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CE. UBS Group AG grew its stake in Celanese by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 310,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,196,000 after acquiring an additional 35,898 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Celanese by 109.2% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 24,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,133,000 after purchasing an additional 12,553 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 14.7% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 122,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,011,000 after purchasing an additional 15,643 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 447.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,072 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 5,781 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in Celanese by 41.4% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 128,423 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,071,000 after buying an additional 37,577 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Performance

Celanese stock opened at $130.60 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $14.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.30. 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 50 day simple moving average of $133.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $147.72. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $110.76 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.73% and a net margin of 18.24%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 11.26 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.14%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. UBS Group decreased their price target 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, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $155.13.

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.