Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. lessened its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,391 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 114 shares during the quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Kestra Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,796 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $351,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 50,619 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,354,000 after purchasing an additional 10,237 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in Celanese by 15.6% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 21,003 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,641,000 after purchasing an additional 2,836 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 37.2% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 686 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 39.1% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 38,334 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,812,000 after acquiring an additional 10,775 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on CE shares. Mizuho lifted their price target on Celanese from $161.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Celanese from $171.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 13th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Celanese from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $159.41.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE CE opened at $134.89 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.42, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $150.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $152.68. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $109.38 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.17. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.00% and a net margin of 18.60%. The business had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.67 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 11.41 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.41%.

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.