Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Declares $0.70 Quarterly Dividend

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, May 13th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%.

Celanese has increased its dividend by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. Celanese has a payout ratio of 20.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Celanese to earn $14.09 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.9%.

Celanese Price Performance

CE stock opened at $154.53 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. Celanese has a one year low of $99.33 and a one year high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a PE ratio of 8.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.36. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $157.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $143.56.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by ($0.05). Celanese had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The firm had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Celanese will post 11.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total value of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 597 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $156.43 per share, with a total value of $93,388.71. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now owns 11,600 shares in the company, valued at $1,814,588. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total value of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CE. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 51.0% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 10,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,451,000 after buying an additional 3,431 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in Celanese by 6.8% in the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 5,627 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $804,000 after purchasing an additional 360 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in Celanese by 5.8% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 14,455 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,065,000 after purchasing an additional 790 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its position in Celanese by 1.5% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 13,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,977,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Finally, Aviva PLC increased its position in Celanese by 12.8% in the first quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 37,618 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,374,000 after purchasing an additional 4,265 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $167.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Bank of America downgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $124.00 to $135.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. StockNews.com upgraded Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $149.22.

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.