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

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 1.81%.

Celanese has increased its dividend by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. Celanese has a dividend payout ratio of 20.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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

Shares of Celanese stock traded down $0.44 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $154.49. The company had a trading volume of 395,298 shares, compared to its average volume of 725,657. Celanese has a 1-year low of $99.33 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $157.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $143.49.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. Celanese’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 11.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CE has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $169.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup lifted their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Alembic Global Advisors lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $149.22.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other news, 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 transaction of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total transaction of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 597 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $156.43 per share, with a total value of $93,388.71. Following the purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,814,588. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 51.0% during 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 during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 6.8% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 5,627 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $804,000 after buying an additional 360 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 5.8% during the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 14,455 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,065,000 after buying an additional 790 shares during the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 1.5% during the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 13,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,977,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 12.8% during the first quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 37,618 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,374,000 after buying an additional 4,265 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.