Celanese (NYSE:CE) Downgraded to “Underweight” Rating by Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating in a report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Piper Sandler currently has $98.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $150.00.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on CE. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $151.00 to $101.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $121.35.

Celanese Trading Down 7.3 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $78.61 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.91, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese has a 1-year low of $78.44 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $125.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $135.87.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.56%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CE. DT Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 128.8% in the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its holdings in Celanese by 3,933.3% in the 2nd quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC bought a new position in Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.