Celanese (NYSE:CE) Sees Large Volume Increase – Time to Buy?

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) shares saw strong trading volume on Thursday . 2,270,083 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 119% from the previous session’s volume of 1,036,832 shares.The stock last traded at $69.45 and had previously closed at $70.90.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. UBS Group cut shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. KeyCorp cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $116.56.

Celanese Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $125.00. The stock has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a PE ratio of 7.10, a PEG ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 1.17.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.50 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.97%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CE. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 608.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,754,000 after acquiring an additional 592,196 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 528.9% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,142,000 after acquiring an additional 219,095 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Celanese by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Celanese by 14.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.