Meeder Advisory Services Inc. Purchases 635 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 39.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 635 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $301,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in Celanese during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% in the second quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on CE. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Bank of America cut their price target on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.13.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock opened at $123.14 on Monday. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $110.76 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market cap of $13.45 billion, a PE ratio of 6.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $131.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $145.79.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.17 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

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.