Short Interest in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Decreases By 8.8%

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,070,000 shares, a decline of 8.8% from the October 31st total of 5,560,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,650,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days. Approximately 4.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CE. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 154.7% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 31,409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,397,000 after purchasing an additional 19,075 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 316.2% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after buying an additional 5,761 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Celanese during the first quarter worth about $3,499,000. Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,229,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 64.1% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 27,107 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,659,000 after acquiring an additional 10,587 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CE shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.59.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock traded up $1.10 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $74.31. 882,828 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,011,309. Celanese has a twelve month low of $71.38 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $111.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $127.55. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $8.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.77%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is 28.17%.

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.