Truist Financial Corp Has $1.50 Million Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Truist Financial Corp reduced its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 995 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,502,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 13,733 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 17,620 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,028,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Capital Group California Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 3,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $464,000 after buying an additional 91 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’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. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Celanese Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $136.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.30. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $128.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $142.12. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $110.76 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.17 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently 15.41%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $163.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $152.87.

About Celanese

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.