Moors & Cabot Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Moors & Cabot Inc. lowered its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 8.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,317 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 201 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $315,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Celanese by 14.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in Celanese by 608.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 14.1% in the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 378,507 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,057,000 after acquiring an additional 46,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Celanese by 528.9% during the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,142,000 after acquiring an additional 219,095 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of CE opened at $74.70 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $116.72 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $131.01. The company has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.52, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $71.38 and a 52-week high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.50 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.75%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 28.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CE. UBS Group lowered Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.59.

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.