Signal Advisors Wealth LLC Acquires 282 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Signal Advisors Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 1.7% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 17,094 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 282 shares during the period. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC’s holdings in Celanese were worth $971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CE. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. State of Wyoming increased its holdings in Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 739.1% in the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the period. American National Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the first quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Caption Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Alembic Global Advisors raised Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Celanese from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler restated an “underweight” rating and set a $48.00 price objective (down from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Monday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.94.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE:CE opened at $55.40 on Friday. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $150.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $47.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently -0.79%.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,120.24. This trade represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.