Moors & Cabot Inc. Sells 221 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Moors & Cabot Inc. reduced its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,518 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 221 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $340,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Menard Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 25.2% in the 2nd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 3,978 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $537,000 after purchasing an additional 801 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Celanese by 14.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,663,000 after buying an additional 150,201 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 16.0% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,227,000 after buying an additional 1,256 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of Celanese by 255.9% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,260 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $170,000 after buying an additional 906 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 39.8% in the 2nd quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $301,000 after acquiring an additional 635 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CE. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Two 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.13.

Celanese Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $126.90 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $130.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $144.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $110.76 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.98, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.17 EPS. Celanese’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 15.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.33% 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.