Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Shares Sold by Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,510 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,234 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Celanese were worth $451,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 18.4% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,641 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 30.5% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 21,009 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,709,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 42,346 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,757,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 128,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,430,000 after purchasing an additional 13,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kerusso Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Kerusso Capital Management LLC now owns 21,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,951,000 after purchasing an additional 1,303 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $55.28 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.95. Celanese Co. has a 12-month low of $45.94 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Vertical Research upgraded Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three 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, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.31.

Celanese Company Profile

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.