Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 15,322 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 116,159 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 15,322 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of Celanese worth $13,451,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Celanese by 1.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,774,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $846,559,000 after acquiring an additional 131,705 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Celanese by 2.0% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,104,461 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $773,605,000 after acquiring an additional 142,516 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 33.8% during the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,094,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $445,872,000 after purchasing an additional 1,035,456 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its stake in Celanese by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,464,658 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $268,377,000 after purchasing an additional 12,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,124,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $230,810,000 after purchasing an additional 27,670 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Credit Suisse Group upped their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $120.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 29th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $130.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $149.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $127.63.

Celanese Stock Up 1.6 %

CE stock opened at $129.93 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.63. The firm has a market cap of $14.14 billion, a PE ratio of 7.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.28. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $97.12 and a one year high of $131.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $121.26 and its 200 day moving average is $117.96.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $2.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.93% and a return on equity of 14.06%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.94 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 9 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 27th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.09%.

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.