Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio trimmed its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 24.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,408 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 13,906 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Celanese were worth $5,766,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 1.0% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 30,894 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,200,000 after buying an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its position in Celanese by 19.8% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $561,000 after acquiring an additional 682 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the third quarter valued at approximately $853,000. Zacks Investment Management lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 6.5% during the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,814,000 after purchasing an additional 9,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 57.5% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 48,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,634,000 after purchasing an additional 17,820 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Barclays cut their price objective 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 reduced their price target on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Vertical Research downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.56.

Celanese Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $68.63 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $67.03 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $7.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. 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 stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $98.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.09.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its 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). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.