Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Takes $380,000 Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC acquired a new position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,212 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $380,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CE. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 979 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $152,000 after buying an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 13,733 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank raised its stake in Celanese by 0.5% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 17,620 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,028,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of Celanese stock traded down $2.72 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $136.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 503,873 shares, compared to its average volume of 719,649. The stock has a market cap of $14.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $110.76 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $143.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $150.86.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.17. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.00% and a net margin of 18.60%. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.67 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.01 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 11.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $175.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Barclays cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and set a $158.00 target price on shares of Celanese in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Celanese from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.75.

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.