Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Position Cut by Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. trimmed its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,581 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 423 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,031,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Celanese by 0.6% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,560,608,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Celanese by 0.3% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,058,447,000 after purchasing an additional 21,085 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Celanese by 14.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Celanese by 0.8% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its position in Celanese by 14.1% in the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 378,507 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,057,000 after purchasing an additional 46,732 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE CE opened at $73.94 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $72.94 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $8.08 billion, a PE ratio of 7.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $123.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.89.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 28.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CE. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday. UBS Group downgraded Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler downgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $121.35.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 6.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.