Bank of New York Mellon Corp Has $189.43 Million Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its position in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE – Get Rating) by 3.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,096,812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 70,001 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Celanese were worth $189,426,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Celanese during the third quarter valued at approximately $54,326,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 332.7% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 547,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,264,000 after purchasing an additional 421,200 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 21.7% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,734,273 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,968,000 after purchasing an additional 308,762 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its holdings in Celanese by 995.6% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 283,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,603,000 after purchasing an additional 257,535 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 30.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,097,231 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,761,000 after purchasing an additional 254,456 shares in the last quarter. 92.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was bought at an average price of $117.15 per share, for a total transaction of $140,580.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 10,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,240,501.35. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CE shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Celanese from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 28th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Celanese from $133.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Celanese from $111.00 to $121.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $127.38.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock opened at $103.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $118.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $106.84. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $86.71 and a fifty-two week high of $161.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.17 billion, a PE ratio of 5.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.77 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.56 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $2.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.41 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 32.15% and a net margin of 19.58%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.91 EPS. Analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.63 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 17th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 16.12%.

About Celanese

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Celanese Corp. engages in the provision of technology and specialty materials businesses. It operates through the following segments: Engineered Materials, Acetate Tow, Acetyl Chain and Other Activities. The Engineered Materials segment includes the engineered materials business, food ingredients business and certain strategic affiliates.