Toronto Dominion Bank Purchases 4,867 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 16.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 34,977 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 4,867 shares during the quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank’s holdings in Celanese were worth $4,718,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.6% in the first quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 13,733 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $492,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.5% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 17,620 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,028,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Capital Group California Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 2.7% in the second quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 3,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $153.13.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $139.29 on Monday. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $110.76 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 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. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $129.53 and a 200-day moving average of $144.04.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.17 EPS. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 10.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.41%.

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.