Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Short Interest Up 8.4% in December

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,140,000 shares, an increase of 8.4% from the November 30th total of 4,740,000 shares. Approximately 4.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,200,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on CE. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Vertical Research cut shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Five equities 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 MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $110.50.

Celanese Price Performance

CE opened at $69.21 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $81.65 and a 200 day moving average of $114.79. The stock has a market cap of $7.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.96, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Celanese has a 52-week low of $66.73 and a 52-week high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.38 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.05%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 11.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 128,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,430,000 after purchasing an additional 13,503 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Celanese during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,302,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Celanese in the 3rd quarter valued at $179,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co raised its position in shares of Celanese by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 17,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,365,000 after acquiring an additional 3,906 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in Celanese by 36.3% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 47,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,482,000 after purchasing an additional 12,701 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Company 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.