Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Trims Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lessened its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 684,008 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 5,562 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned 0.63% of Celanese worth $47,340,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CE. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in Celanese by 15.3% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 15,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,165,000 after acquiring an additional 2,111 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in Celanese by 50.8% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 20,510 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,789,000 after buying an additional 6,907 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its position in Celanese by 6.2% in the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 13,436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,827,000 after buying an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC increased its position in Celanese by 8.8% in the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 7,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,002,000 after buying an additional 599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in Celanese in the third quarter worth about $397,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on CE. Mizuho reduced their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Vertical Research upgraded Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.18.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $57.26 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $63.31 and a 200 day moving average of $87.72. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $45.94 and a 12 month high of $172.16. The firm has a market cap of $6.26 billion, a PE ratio of -4.11, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.

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.