Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH

Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH trimmed its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 74.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 651 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,852 shares during the quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH’s holdings in Celanese were worth $45,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $521,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 91.8% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 126,660 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,766,000 after purchasing an additional 60,621 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 14.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 281,709 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,300,000 after purchasing an additional 34,658 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth about $7,168,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Celanese by 70.3% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 12,348 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $849,000 after acquiring an additional 5,098 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,120.24. The trade was a 10.57% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Wall Street Zen raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Celanese from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.94.

Celanese Trading Down 3.0%

NYSE:CE opened at $52.86 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $36.29 and a 1-year high of $152.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.09. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.73.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.08 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently -0.79%.

Celanese 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.