Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co Boosts Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co raised its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 29.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 17,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 3,906 shares during the quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co’s holdings in Celanese were worth $2,365,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 2.7% during the second quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 3,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $464,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 13.4% in the second quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 839 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 20.4% during the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 585 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.4% during the second quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 27,552 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,716,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DT Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 128.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on CE shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.56.

Celanese Stock Up 1.2 %

CE opened at $68.88 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $67.64 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $99.97 and its 200 day moving average is $122.68.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.50 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business 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 4.07%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.