Andra AP fonden Sells 22,500 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Andra AP fonden decreased its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 84.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 22,500 shares during the period. Andra AP fonden’s holdings in Celanese were worth $277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Celanese by 27.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Celanese by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Celanese by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,037,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $71,823,000 after purchasing an additional 46,856 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.31.

Celanese Price Performance

CE opened at $55.28 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $65.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $91.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $45.94 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a PE ratio of -3.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently -0.86%.

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.