Short Interest in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Rises By 5.9%

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Celanese

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CE. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 2nd quarter worth $1,434,000. New Century Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese during the second quarter worth about $1,247,000. Copperwynd Financial LLC increased its holdings in Celanese by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter. Copperwynd Financial LLC now owns 4,745 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $670,000 after buying an additional 430 shares during the period. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 157.8% during the 2nd quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC now owns 46,576 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,283,000 after acquiring an additional 28,508 shares during the period. Finally, Scientech Research LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $255,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $135.02 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $14.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.43, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $129.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $143.89. Celanese has a one year low of $110.76 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

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

Celanese Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group reduced their target price on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Celanese from $168.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Bank of America lowered their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $153.13.

About Celanese

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.