Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Receives Average Rating of “Reduce” from Analysts

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) has received an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $109.33.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CE. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group downgraded Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Vertical Research cut shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in Celanese by 155.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,049,000 after buying an additional 130,037 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management lifted its stake in Celanese by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,814,000 after acquiring an additional 9,782 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 21.7% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,744,000 after acquiring an additional 41,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 7.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after acquiring an additional 69,606 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $64.88 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.53, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.18. Celanese has a 12 month low of $64.36 and a 12 month high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $76.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $112.60.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

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.