Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 45,928 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Victory Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 28.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 117,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 45,928 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $15,985,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CE. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Celanese by 0.6% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,560,608,000 after buying an additional 90,206 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.3% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,058,447,000 after buying an additional 21,085 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Celanese by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,663,000 after buying an additional 150,201 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Celanese by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $146,426,000 after acquiring an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 14.1% in the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 378,507 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,057,000 after acquiring an additional 46,732 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays cut their price target on Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $120.59.

Celanese Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE:CE opened at $72.19 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Celanese Co. has a twelve month low of $71.45 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $119.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $132.41. The company has a market cap of $7.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. Celanese’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.88%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.17%.

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.