Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Sells 11,876 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lowered its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 5.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 194,621 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 11,876 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $26,252,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. UBS Group AG grew its position in shares of Celanese by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 310,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,196,000 after purchasing an additional 35,898 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 109.2% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 24,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,133,000 after buying an additional 12,553 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 14.7% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 122,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,011,000 after acquiring an additional 15,643 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 447.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,072 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 5,781 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in Celanese by 41.4% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 128,423 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,071,000 after acquiring an additional 37,577 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Up 2.7 %

CE opened at $123.14 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $13.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.78, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $131.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $145.77. Celanese Co. has a twelve month low of $110.76 and a twelve month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.17 earnings per share. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CE. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $153.13.

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.