Tredje AP fonden Cuts Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Tredje AP fonden lessened its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 30.9% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 28,185 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 12,620 shares during the quarter. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in Celanese were worth $3,802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $153.13.

Celanese Stock Up 0.5 %

CE stock opened at $126.37 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $110.76 and a 12 month high of $172.16. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $131.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $145.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.17 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.