Amalgamated Bank Grows Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Amalgamated Bank lifted its position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,931 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 649 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Celanese were worth $4,577,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CE. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 2.9% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 20,155 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,719,000 after purchasing an additional 567 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 25.2% during the 2nd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 3,978 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $537,000 after buying an additional 801 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Celanese by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,663,000 after buying an additional 150,201 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 16.0% in the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,227,000 after buying an additional 1,256 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 255.9% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,260 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 906 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Price Performance

CE stock opened at $126.90 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $130.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $144.90. The company 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $110.76 and a twelve month 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.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 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 business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 10.44 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given 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 yield of 2.21%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.13.

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.