Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Lowers Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS cut its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 543 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,609,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 27.4% during the 3rd 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 during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Celanese by 3.1% during 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 raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,037,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $71,823,000 after acquiring an additional 46,856 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its position in shares of Celanese by 139.8% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,453,000 after acquiring an additional 298,596 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $59.14 on Wednesday. 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 50-day moving average of $62.68 and a 200-day moving average of $85.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.25, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $45.94 and a 12 month high of $172.16.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -0.86%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.67.

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.