DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Purchases 451 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,628 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 451 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,417,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CE. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 236 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Partners LLC bought a new position in Celanese during the second quarter worth $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $153.13.

Celanese Stock Up 0.5 %

CE stock opened at $126.37 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $13.80 billion, a PE ratio of 6.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $110.76 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $131.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $145.24.

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

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.