Celanese (NYSE:CE) Sees Large Volume Increase – Should You Buy?

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) shares saw unusually-high trading volume on Friday . Approximately 1,389,148 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 39% from the previous session’s volume of 1,002,179 shares.The stock last traded at $74.27 and had previously closed at $72.91.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. KeyCorp lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $120.59.

Celanese Stock Up 0.4 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $112.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $128.59. The company has a market cap of $8.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.37, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently 28.17%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. KBC Group NV increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 130,037 shares during the period. National Pension Service increased its stake in Celanese by 21.7% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,744,000 after acquiring an additional 41,598 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Celanese by 7.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $134,723,000 after acquiring an additional 69,606 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 447.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,072 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 5,781 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after acquiring an additional 592,196 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.