Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 11,134 Shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE)

Victory Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) by 19.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 46,308 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 11,134 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,629,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CE. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,506,000 after buying an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 105.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $274,714,000 after buying an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 266.7% in the fourth quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $242,681,000 after buying an additional 2,550,334 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the fourth quarter valued at $222,815,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,679,670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $184,998,000 after buying an additional 73,498 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on CE shares. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $51.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.50.

Celanese Stock Down 1.4%

CE stock opened at $57.90 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $6.33 billion, a PE ratio of -3.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.14. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.90. Celanese Corporation has a 52 week low of $36.29 and a 52 week high of $144.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 11.28% and a negative net margin of 16.54%. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.08 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 29th. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president owned 15,468 shares in the company, valued at $807,120.24. The trade was a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

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.