Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Trims Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 9.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 164 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $209,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 6.7% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 3,534 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $480,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Celanese by 155.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,049,000 after acquiring an additional 130,037 shares during the last quarter. Huntington National Bank increased its stake in Celanese by 32.7% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 5,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $687,000 after acquiring an additional 1,244 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP increased its stake in Celanese by 34.7% during the third quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP now owns 14,920 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,029,000 after acquiring an additional 3,845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 0.7% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,954,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $121.35.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The trade was a 6.28 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $73.94 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business has a 50-day moving average of $123.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $134.89. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $72.94 and a 1 year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

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.