Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Short Interest Update

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) saw a significant decrease in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,170,000 shares, a decrease of 6.5% from the January 15th total of 6,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,660,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days. Approximately 5.7% of the company's shares are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group dropped their target price on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Bank of America raised Celanese from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $83.53.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dodge & Cox increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at about $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 266.7% in the 4th quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $242,681,000 after acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Celanese Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:CE traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $52.75. 5,294,084 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,717,930. The company has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.79, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.17. The business has a 50-day moving average of $68.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese has a twelve month low of $51.24 and a twelve month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. On average, equities analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese's payout ratio is -20.10%.

Celanese Company 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.