Legacy Capital Group California Inc. Has $231,000 Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Legacy Capital Group California Inc. boosted its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 66.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,336 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,327 shares during the period. Legacy Capital Group California Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $231,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CE. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Celanese by 27.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 7.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after buying an additional 177,552 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after acquiring an additional 69,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 608.2% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $52.75 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $51.24 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $97.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.79, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.17.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is -20.10%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Vertical Research lowered Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.53.

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.