Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Bought by KBC Group NV

KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 155.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 130,037 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Celanese were worth $29,049,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 36,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,277,000 after buying an additional 1,946 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in Celanese by 7.1% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 60,009 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,309,000 after acquiring an additional 3,992 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in Celanese by 2.1% in the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 14,078 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,420,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 2.8% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $492,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 5,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $899,000 after purchasing an additional 584 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This represents a 6.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Celanese Stock Down 0.1 %

CE opened at $73.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $8.08 billion, a PE ratio of 7.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $123.30 and its 200-day moving average is $134.89. Celanese Co. has a one year low of $72.94 and a one year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. Celanese’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.79%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Vertical Research downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $121.35.

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.