Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Reduces Position in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Posted by Defense World Staff on May 3rd, 2023

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE – Get Rating) by 34.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,359 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 5,857 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $1,161,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CE. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the third quarter valued at approximately $54,326,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 332.7% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 547,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,264,000 after purchasing an additional 421,200 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 995.6% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 283,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,603,000 after acquiring an additional 257,535 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 30.2% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,097,231 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,761,000 after acquiring an additional 254,456 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 68.2% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 475,618 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $67,952,000 after acquiring an additional 192,838 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on CE. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Celanese from $152.00 to $146.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Celanese from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Celanese from $139.00 to $131.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. Mizuho upped their target price on Celanese from $107.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Celanese from $105.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $128.54.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $102.03 on Wednesday. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $86.71 and a 1-year high of $161.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.19, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $108.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $108.30. The company has a market capitalization of $11.07 billion, a PE ratio of 5.87, a PEG ratio of 5.55 and a beta of 1.30.

Celanese (NYSE:CE – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.56 by ($0.12). Celanese had a net margin of 19.58% and a return on equity of 32.15%. The company had revenue of $2.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.41 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.91 earnings per share. Celanese’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 11.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 28th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.12%.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $117.15 per share, with a total value of $140,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 10,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,240,501.35. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Celanese

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Celanese Corp. engages in the provision of technology and specialty materials businesses. It operates through the following segments: Engineered Materials, Acetate Tow, Acetyl Chain and Other Activities. The Engineered Materials segment includes the engineered materials business, food ingredients business and certain strategic affiliates.