NorthRock Partners LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

NorthRock Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 23.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 466 shares during the quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $258,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Celanese by 43.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,137,688 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $953,653,000 after purchasing an additional 1,852,099 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Celanese by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,529,064 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,325,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,758 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Celanese by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,809,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,300,907,000 after purchasing an additional 468,003 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Celanese by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,077,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,031,776,000 after purchasing an additional 354,367 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its stake in Celanese by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,337,115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,761,567,000 after purchasing an additional 329,740 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CE traded up $0.60 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $142.84. The company had a trading volume of 516,167 shares, compared to its average volume of 721,153. The stock has a market cap of $15.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.86, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $110.76 and a 12 month high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $145.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $151.29.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.67 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.00% and a net margin of 18.60%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.01 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 15.41%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CE. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Barclays lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. 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 report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $160.00 target price (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Celanese in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Celanese from $175.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $159.65.

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.