Grove Bank & Trust Sells 1,560 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Grove Bank & Trust trimmed its stake in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 57.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,173 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,560 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust’s holdings in Celanese were worth $159,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CE. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,077,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,031,776,000 after acquiring an additional 354,367 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Celanese by 0.3% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,058,447,000 after acquiring an additional 21,085 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake 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 valued at $156,663,000 after acquiring an additional 150,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings 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 last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CE shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Celanese from $167.00 to $163.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.87.

Celanese Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $135.66 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.82 billion, a PE ratio of 7.47, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $110.76 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The business has a 50 day moving average of $128.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.17 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 10.32 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

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.