American Century Companies Inc. Sells 551 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

American Century Companies Inc. lessened its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 551 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $731,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 29.0% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 13,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,873,000 after purchasing an additional 3,100 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in Celanese by 5.8% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 9,249 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,258,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 19.8% during the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 4,127 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $561,000 after acquiring an additional 682 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 1.0% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 30,894 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,200,000 after buying an additional 315 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 281,709 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $38,300,000 after purchasing an additional 34,658 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $63.89.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE opened at $38.22 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $169.50. The company’s 50 day moving average is $54.99 and its 200 day moving average is $77.85. The company has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.74, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. 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 (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.

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.