Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Stock Position Decreased by Maryland State Retirement & Pension System

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,038 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 325 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Celanese were worth $418,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,037,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $71,823,000 after purchasing an additional 46,856 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Celanese by 139.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,453,000 after purchasing an additional 298,596 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $59.14 on Wednesday. Celanese Co. has a 12 month low of $45.94 and a 12 month high of $172.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The stock has a market cap of $6.47 billion, a PE ratio of -4.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.82.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on CE shares. KeyCorp raised shares of Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.67.

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.