Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Stock Position Increased by Raymond James Trust N.A.

Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 3.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $979,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. KBC Group NV raised its position in shares of Celanese by 155.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,049,000 after purchasing an additional 130,037 shares during the period. National Pension Service raised its position in shares of Celanese by 21.7% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $31,744,000 after purchasing an additional 41,598 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 447.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,072 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 5,781 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 154.7% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 31,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,397,000 after purchasing an additional 19,075 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Piper Sandler downgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.59.

Celanese Trading Down 0.4 %

Celanese stock opened at $74.70 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $116.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $130.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $71.38 and a 12 month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.75%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.