XML Financial LLC Increases Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

XML Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,040 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the quarter. XML Financial LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $545,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CE. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 0.6% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,560,608,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,077,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,031,776,000 after purchasing an additional 354,367 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Celanese by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,337,115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,761,567,000 after purchasing an additional 329,740 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Celanese by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,529,064 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,325,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,758 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Celanese by 0.3% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,058,447,000 after buying an additional 21,085 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Barclays dropped their price target on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Celanese from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $155.13.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Up 1.7 %

Celanese stock traded up $2.15 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $130.65. The stock had a trading volume of 734,153 shares, compared to its average volume of 745,450. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $110.76 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $135.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $148.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.73% and a net margin of 18.24%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.17 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 11.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

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.