Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 9.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 164 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $209,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in Celanese by 528.9% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,142,000 after buying an additional 219,095 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Celanese by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,663,000 after buying an additional 150,201 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in Celanese by 155.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,049,000 after buying an additional 130,037 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 512.5% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 118,149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,064,000 after purchasing an additional 98,860 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $2,560,608,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 6.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays cut their price objective on Celanese from $151.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $121.35.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE CE opened at $73.94 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a PE ratio of 7.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $123.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.89. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $72.94 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.79%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.17%.

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.