Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,220,000 shares, a decline of 15.9% from the March 15th total of 8,590,000 shares. Currently, 6.5% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,600,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dodge & Cox increased its position in shares of Celanese by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $942,506,000 after acquiring an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth approximately $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $162,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler reiterated an "underweight" rating and set a $48.00 price target (down previously from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Celanese from $55.00 to $40.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $61.33.

Celanese Price Performance

CE stock traded down $0.89 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $42.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 249,314 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,004,162. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The company's 50 day moving average is $50.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.27. The stock has a market cap of $4.68 billion, a PE ratio of -3.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $36.29 and a fifty-two week high of $169.50.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.36 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.28%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

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.