Public Sector Pension Investment Board Boosts Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 32.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,420 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 597 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Celanese were worth $326,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $31,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Celanese during the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Key Financial Inc grew its stake in Celanese by 3,933.3% during the 2nd quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC bought a new position in Celanese during the 2nd quarter worth $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on CE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded 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 note on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.13.

Celanese Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $133.90 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market cap of $14.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $143.65. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $110.76 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced 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 net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.17 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 10.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is 15.41%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was 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 $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.