Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Acquires 69,606 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.91% of Celanese worth $134,723,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CE. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings 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 valued at $156,663,000 after acquiring an additional 150,201 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 0.8% during the second 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 purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 608.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased 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 buying an additional 46,732 shares during the period. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 528.9% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,142,000 after buying an additional 219,095 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on CE. Piper Sandler cut shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group lowered Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $120.59.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE opened at $74.70 on Monday. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $71.38 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $116.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $130.56. The stock has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 7.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.50 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 28.17%.

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.