Celanese Co. (CE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.70 on May 13th

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Stockholders 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%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th.

Celanese has increased its dividend payment 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 Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $154.62 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average is $157.95 and its 200-day moving average is $143.64. Celanese has a 1 year low of $99.33 and a 1 year high of $172.16.

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 analyst estimates of $2.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Celanese will post 11.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other news, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly acquired 1,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $156.69 per share, for a total transaction of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president now owns 57,023 shares in the company, valued at $8,934,933.87. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly acquired 1,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $156.69 per share, for a total transaction of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president now owns 57,023 shares in the company, valued at $8,934,933.87. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 597 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were bought at an average price of $156.43 per share, for a total transaction of $93,388.71. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,814,588. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,077,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,031,776,000 after buying an additional 354,367 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Celanese by 1.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,774,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $846,559,000 after acquiring an additional 131,705 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 1.3% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,124,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $230,810,000 after acquiring an additional 27,670 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in Celanese by 8.8% in the second quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,879,042 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $217,593,000 after acquiring an additional 152,164 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Celanese by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,530,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,479,000 after acquiring an additional 114,087 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Alembic Global Advisors lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.22.

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.