Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 7,039 Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,039 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $957,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Celanese by 155.5% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,049,000 after acquiring an additional 130,037 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 21.7% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,744,000 after purchasing an additional 41,598 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in Celanese by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 147,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,986,000 after buying an additional 16,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in Celanese by 608.2% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after buying an additional 592,196 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CE. Mizuho dropped their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group lowered shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.56.

Celanese Trading Up 1.6 %

Celanese stock opened at $70.54 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a PE ratio of 7.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $105.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $124.59. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $68.88 and a 12 month 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 firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.97%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.17%.

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.