Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Has $1.48 Million Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado decreased its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,734 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 292 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,475,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. WealthPLAN Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Celanese by 92.6% in the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 181 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Certified Advisory Corp acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, PSI Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on CE. Piper Sandler lowered Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $120.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 29th. StockNews.com lowered Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 4th. Credit Suisse Group boosted their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Celanese from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 8th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Celanese from $130.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $127.63.

Celanese Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE CE opened at $127.84 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $121.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $117.68. The company has a market capitalization of $13.91 billion, a PE ratio of 6.89, a P/E/G ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $96.52 and a 12 month high of $131.05.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.30. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.06% and a net margin of 18.93%. The business had revenue of $2.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 18.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 27th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.09%.

About Celanese

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.