Swedbank AB Sells 228 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Swedbank AB decreased its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,238 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 228 shares during the period. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,616,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Celanese by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 134,378 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $23,096,000 after acquiring an additional 1,367 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 154.7% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 31,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,397,000 after acquiring an additional 19,075 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 316.2% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,303,000 after acquiring an additional 5,761 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,229,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. KeyCorp lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $120.59.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock opened at $72.95 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $7.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $71.38 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $114.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $129.38.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.50 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.84%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.17%.

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.