Prudential Financial Inc. Acquires 180,332 Shares of Celanese Corporation $CE

Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) by 171.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 285,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 180,332 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $15,800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dodge & Cox raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 15,391,416 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $873,771,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,354 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Celanese by 134.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,566,226 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $202,455,000 after purchasing an additional 2,044,662 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Celanese by 35.0% during the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,164,150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $179,629,000 after buying an additional 819,489 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 0.7% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,866,515 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $103,301,000 after purchasing an additional 13,042 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in Celanese by 9,132.0% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,801,349 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $102,263,000 after purchasing an additional 1,781,837 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $52.00 price objective on Celanese and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Celanese in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $59.00 to $57.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $45.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.78.

Celanese Stock Performance

Celanese stock opened at $40.55 on Thursday. Celanese Corporation has a 1-year low of $35.13 and a 1-year high of $75.84. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.44 billion, a PE ratio of -2.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.29.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.27 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.30% and a positive return on equity of 10.48%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.44 EPS. Celanese has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.850-1.000 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 28th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 28th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -0.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, Director Timothy Go purchased 1,039 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $46.25 per share, for a total transaction of $48,053.75. Following the transaction, the director owned 4,415 shares in the company, valued at $204,193.75. The trade was a 30.78% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.