Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System decreased its position in shares of Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) by 1.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 31,346 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 390 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,780,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CE. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. State of Wyoming lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 127.0% during the 1st quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 622 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 739.1% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American National Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 15,468 shares in the company, valued at $807,120.24. The trade was a 10.57% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CE shares. Mizuho increased their target price on Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Celanese from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.50.

Celanese Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of CE opened at $57.35 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.14. Celanese Corporation has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $144.59. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $55.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 11.28% and a negative net margin of 16.54%. Celanese’s revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th will be given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 29th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -0.79%.

Celanese 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.