Wealthspire Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,481 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Celanese by 1.9% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 10,720 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Celanese by 46.0% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 60,269 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,565,000 after purchasing an additional 18,995 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. bought a new stake in Celanese during the third quarter valued at about $215,000. Strs Ohio grew its holdings in Celanese by 18.4% during the third quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 13,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,082 shares during the period. Finally, Advisor Partners II LLC grew its holdings in Celanese by 7.6% during the third quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $480,000 after purchasing an additional 269 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 597 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $156.43 per share, for a total transaction of $93,388.71. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now owns 11,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,814,588. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 597 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $156.43 per share, for a total transaction of $93,388.71. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now owns 11,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,814,588. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total value of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 76,429 shares in the company, valued at $11,987,888.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CE shares. StockNews.com raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Piper Sandler raised Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Alembic Global Advisors lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Celanese from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $153.78.

Celanese Trading Down 2.9 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $156.69 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 1 year low of $100.16 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $160.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $147.97. The company has a market cap of $17.07 billion, a PE ratio of 8.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.37.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.17. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.00% and a net margin of 18.60%. The business had revenue of $2.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.67 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.01 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 11.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.41%.

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.