Swedbank AB Sells 3,877 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Swedbank AB lessened its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 20.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 3,877 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after acquiring an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Celanese by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after buying an additional 69,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 608.2% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after buying an additional 592,196 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $70.99 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.14, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $70.15 and a 200 day moving average of $104.22. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $64.05 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on CE. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays cut their target price on Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $102.82.

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.