Short Interest in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Decreases By 6.5%

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,170,000 shares, a drop of 6.5% from the January 15th total of 6,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,660,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days. Currently, 5.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Vertical Research cut shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup cut their price target on Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.06.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE:CE traded up $2.74 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $68.04. The stock had a trading volume of 3,262,223 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,075,084. Celanese has a twelve month low of $64.05 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.85, a PEG ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be issued a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.18%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese in the fourth quarter valued at about $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 266.7% during the fourth quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $242,681,000 after buying an additional 2,550,334 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Celanese by 4,506.7% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $162,274,000 after buying an additional 2,293,764 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Celanese by 27.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.