Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Short Interest Up 33.6% in February

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) was the target of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,700,000 shares, a growth of 33.6% from the February 13th total of 6,510,000 shares. Approximately 8.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 3,090,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 103.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 122.5% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 267 shares during the period. CKW Financial Group grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 739.1% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 473 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Celanese from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.18.

Celanese Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE CE traded up $0.95 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $58.00. 2,717,705 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,587,911. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.34 billion, a PE ratio of -4.16, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. 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 has a 1-year low of $45.94 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $88.74.

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

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

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.