Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Short Interest Update

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) saw a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,700,000 shares, an increase of 33.6% from the February 13th total of 6,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,090,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 8.0% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CE. State Street Corp grew its stake in Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management boosted its holdings in Celanese by 6.5% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,814,000 after acquiring an additional 9,782 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 7.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after acquiring an additional 69,606 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $521,000 after acquiring an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of Celanese by 12.5% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 147,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $19,986,000 after purchasing an additional 16,308 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Trading Up 0.2 %

CE traded up $0.11 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $58.08. 695,563 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,594,974. Celanese has a 1 year low of $45.94 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The firm has a market cap of $6.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $88.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.18.

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.