Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Celanese (NYSE:CE)

Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders acquired 5,156 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 205% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,692 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Celanese by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,840,341 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $500,610,000 after purchasing an additional 90,428 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Celanese by 24.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,565,556 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $235,312,000 after buying an additional 1,076,645 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,115,365 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $215,255,000 after buying an additional 887,600 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,094,781 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $173,127,000 after buying an additional 558,391 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in Celanese by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,949,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $166,973,000 after buying an additional 80,242 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of Celanese stock traded up $4.83 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $67.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 758,776 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,534,138. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $56.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.18. Celanese has a one year low of $35.13 and a one year high of $67.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market cap of $7.45 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.35, a P/E/G ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 0.85.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The basic materials company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by ($0.22). Celanese had a positive return on equity of 8.75% and a negative net margin of 12.15%.The business had revenue of $2.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. Celanese has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.700-0.850 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 24th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 24th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1.13%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $66.00 target price on shares of Celanese and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Celanese from $58.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Celanese from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Celanese from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Vertical Research upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $63.47.

About Celanese

Celanese Corporation is a global chemical and specialty materials company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of products serving diverse industries. The company operates through two primary business segments—Engineered Materials and Acetyl Chain—offering solutions that range from high-performance polymers and specialty additives to industrial chemicals and intermediates. Its engineered materials are used in applications such as automotive components, consumer electronics, medical devices and packaging, while its acetyl derivatives find uses in coatings, adhesives, solvents and personal care products.

In the Engineered Materials segment, Celanese produces a variety of high-performance thermoplastics, polyether-block-amide (PEBA) elastomers and functional additives designed to enhance product durability, thermal resistance and sustainability.