Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Sells 28,010 Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. reduced its holdings in Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 14.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 166,611 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 28,010 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. owned 0.15% of Celanese worth $22,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 13,306 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,809,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. grew its position in Celanese by 18.1% in the third quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 2,968 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $404,000 after acquiring an additional 454 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 45.9% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 15,612 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,123,000 after acquiring an additional 4,908 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its position in Celanese by 3.4% during the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 7,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $979,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $75.30 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $116.72 and a 200 day moving average of $130.56. Celanese Co. has a 52 week low of $71.38 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $8.23 billion, a PE ratio of 7.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.17%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CE shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. KeyCorp cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.59.

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.