Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,954,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LPL Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 528.9% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,142,000 after purchasing an additional 219,095 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Celanese by 14.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,663,000 after buying an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 512.5% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 118,149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,064,000 after buying an additional 98,860 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,560,608,000 after buying an additional 90,206 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 4,024.9% during the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 59,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,293,000 after acquiring an additional 58,441 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $151.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.35.

Celanese Price Performance

CE stock opened at $75.71 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $124.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $135.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $8.27 billion, a PE ratio of 7.62, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $75.26 and a one year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is 28.17%.

About Celanese

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.