New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 4,500 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 8.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 49,749 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,500 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Celanese were worth $3,443,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Celanese by 103.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group raised its holdings in Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its holdings in Celanese by 43.2% in the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 670 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group raised its holdings in Celanese by 51.1% in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 382 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 81.4% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 1,190 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 534 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on CE. Citigroup upgraded shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.31.

Celanese Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $50.91 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $49.22 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $67.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $95.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.65, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

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.