Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Decreases Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS decreased its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 23,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 543 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,609,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Celanese by 103.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 43.2% in the 4th quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 200.8% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in Celanese by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $59.14 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $62.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $85.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market capitalization of $6.47 billion, a PE ratio of -4.25, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $45.94 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is -0.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.67.

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.