Versor Investments LP Has $313,000 Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Versor Investments LP reduced its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 77.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,300 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 8,014 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP's holdings in Celanese were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 0.6% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,560,608,000 after acquiring an additional 90,206 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Celanese by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,058,447,000 after purchasing an additional 21,085 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Celanese by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Celanese by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 378,507 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $51,057,000 after buying an additional 46,732 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Piper Sandler downgraded Celanese from a "neutral" rating to an "underweight" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded Celanese from a "market perform" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $121.35.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $73.78 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $133.88. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $8.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $72.78 and a 12-month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. Celanese's revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is presently 28.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 6.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.