Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Stock Position Lowered by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp lowered its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 28.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 2,210 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $384,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 11.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 128,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,430,000 after buying an additional 13,503 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 243,137 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,057,000 after acquiring an additional 1,074 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank raised its position in shares of Celanese by 32.7% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 5,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $687,000 after purchasing an additional 1,244 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 155.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,049,000 after purchasing an additional 130,037 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 3,534 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $480,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on CE shares. Citigroup upgraded Celanese to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Three research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.31.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE opened at $57.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a PE ratio of -4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $63.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.83. Celanese Co. has a twelve month low of $45.94 and a twelve month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. As a group, research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -0.86%.

Celanese Company 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.