Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Increases Stock Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 5.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 44,171 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,261 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $6,005,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CE. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in Celanese by 608.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after buying an additional 592,196 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 528.9% in the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,142,000 after acquiring an additional 219,095 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Celanese by 14.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Celanese by 155.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,049,000 after purchasing an additional 130,037 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of CE opened at $70.54 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a PE ratio of 7.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 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. The company’s fifty day moving average is $105.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.59. Celanese Co. has a fifty-two week low of $68.88 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly 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 firm 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%. Celanese’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. Analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.97%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CE. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Vertical Research downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.56.

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.