Thomas Francis Kelly Acquires 2,000 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Stock

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE – Get Rating) SVP Thomas Francis Kelly bought 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $107.29 per share, with a total value of $214,580.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now owns 47,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,060,332.85. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Celanese Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of CE opened at $106.90 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $105.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $109.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.87, a P/E/G ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $86.71 and a 12-month high of $161.37.

Celanese (NYSE:CE – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The basic materials company reported $2.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.88 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 23.75% and a net margin of 14.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $5.54 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 11.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 1st were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 28th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 20.60%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on CE. Piper Sandler raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $111.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $135.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Monday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $140.00 to $124.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective 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. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $124.77.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CE. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Celanese by 1.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,774,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $846,559,000 after purchasing an additional 131,705 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Celanese by 2.0% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,104,461 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $773,605,000 after purchasing an additional 142,516 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 33.8% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,094,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $445,872,000 after purchasing an additional 1,035,456 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its holdings in Celanese by 0.5% in the first quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 2,464,658 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $268,377,000 after purchasing an additional 12,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 1.3% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,124,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $230,810,000 after purchasing an additional 27,670 shares in the last quarter. 92.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Company Profile

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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.