Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Sells 4,119 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lowered its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 19.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,567 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,119 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Key Financial Inc increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% in the second 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. Finally, Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Celanese in the 1st quarter worth approximately $49,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $153.13.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $125.76 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $110.76 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $131.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $145.37.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The company’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.17 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.41%.

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.