Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC

Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC reduced its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 41.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,617 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 16,385 shares during the period. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. DT Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in Celanese by 128.8% in the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $308,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.7% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,954,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Neumann Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 5.3% during the third quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Celanese by 3.2% during the third quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $715,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock opened at $74.17 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.94. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $64.05 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The stock has a market cap of $8.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37.

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 net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.50 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CE. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.82.

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.