Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Sells 380 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,488 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 380 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $172,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Trading Up 7.5 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $57.10 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 52-week low of $45.94 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $89.02. The company has a market capitalization of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on CE. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.31.

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.