Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Rhumbline Advisers

Rhumbline Advisers trimmed its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 7.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 196,689 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 15,212 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers owned approximately 0.18% of Celanese worth $13,613,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CE. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 27.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares during the period. 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Celanese by 7.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $52.75 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The stock has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a PE ratio of -3.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a 50-day moving average of $68.25 and a 200 day moving average of $96.95. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $51.24 and a 12-month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.23%. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CE. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America upgraded shares of Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Vertical Research downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.00.

Celanese 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.