DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Sells 6,429 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale trimmed its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 27.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,821 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 6,429 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,630,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 92.6% in the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Certified Advisory Corp bought a new position in Celanese during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 83.7% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 226 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 180.0% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Provence Wealth Management Group bought a new position in Celanese during the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CE shares. Bank of America cut Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $124.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Celanese from $168.00 to $165.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Barclays cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Celanese from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.22.

Celanese Trading Down 2.7 %

Shares of CE opened at $156.04 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $157.36 and a 200 day moving average of $142.77. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $99.33 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The firm has a market cap of $16.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.29 by ($0.05). Celanese had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The company had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.47 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 5th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 20th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 16th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.64%.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total transaction of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 597 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $156.43 per share, with a total value of $93,388.71. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now owns 11,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,814,588. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total value of $313,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,987,888.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.