Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Fulton Bank N.A.

Fulton Bank N.A. cut its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,151 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 328 shares during the period. Fulton Bank N.A.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,639,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quent Capital LLC increased its position in Celanese by 18.2% during the second quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 882 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $119,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS increased its position in Celanese by 15.7% during the 2nd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 20,911 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,844 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its position in Celanese by 34.1% during the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Celanese by 17.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in Celanese by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 17,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,911,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CE. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Celanese from $175.00 to $160.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.75.

Celanese Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Celanese stock traded up $1.10 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $127.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,443,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 738,524. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The company has a market capitalization of $13.88 billion, a PE ratio of 6.99, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day moving average of $139.59 and a 200 day moving average of $150.07. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $110.76 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 EPS 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 13.73%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.76 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $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 forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.26 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.