Vanguard Group Inc. Reduces Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Vanguard Group Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Free Report) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 13,190,910 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 238,161 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 12.07% of Celanese worth $912,943,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CE. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings 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 worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Celanese by 139.8% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $35,453,000 after buying an additional 298,596 shares during the period. ING Groep NV bought a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $14,566,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Celanese by 7.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $353,145,000 after buying an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Finally, Gateway Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 208.9% during the fourth quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 225,402 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $15,600,000 after acquiring an additional 152,441 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays cut their price target on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE:CE traded down $0.44 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $56.76. 2,271,911 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,812,391. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The company has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of -4.07, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $61.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.34. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $45.94 and a one year high of $172.10.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -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.