Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Short Interest Up 5.9% in September

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,190,000 shares, an increase of 5.9% from the August 31st total of 4,900,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 908,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.7 days. Currently, 4.8% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CE shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.13.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CE. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 0.6% in the first quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 13,733 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,360,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the first quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $492,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Celanese by 0.5% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 17,620 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,028,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Capital Group California Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 2.7% in the second quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 3,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $464,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of CE traded down $0.94 on Tuesday, hitting $135.02. 689,643 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 783,973. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $129.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.89. Celanese has a 1 year low of $110.76 and a 1 year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.17 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese will post 10.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.41%.

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.