Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Grows Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1,074.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 21,439 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 19,613 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,915,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its position in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CE. Barclays cut 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. KeyCorp lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.44.

Celanese Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:CE opened at $127.02 on Thursday. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $110.76 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The stock has a market cap of $13.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.01, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day moving average of $130.03 and a 200-day moving average of $139.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.17 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

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.