Swedbank AB Sells 228 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Swedbank AB trimmed its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,238 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 228 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. DT Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 128.8% during the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% during the 2nd 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 during the period. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group lowered Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. KeyCorp lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $120.59.

Celanese Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $72.95 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.97 billion, a PE ratio of 7.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $71.38 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The business has a 50-day moving average of $114.71 and a 200 day moving average of $129.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The company’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.