Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Short Interest Up 33.6% in February

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,700,000 shares, a growth of 33.6% from the February 13th total of 6,510,000 shares. Approximately 8.0% of the company's shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 3,090,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $72.18.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 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 purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Celanese by 27.4% during 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted 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 worth $274,714,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 266.7% during the fourth 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 last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Celanese stock traded down $0.52 during trading on Thursday, hitting $56.68. 1,049,447 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,604,294. Celanese has a 52-week low of $45.94 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $63.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.72. The firm has a market cap of $6.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. 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. On average, equities analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given 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 0.21%. 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.