Celanese (NYSE:CE) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by StockNews.com

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report issued on Thursday.

CE has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday. Barclays dropped their price target on Celanese from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Vertical Research downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Bank of America upgraded Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.53.

Celanese Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $52.75 on Thursday. Celanese has a 12-month low of $51.24 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $68.25 and its 200 day moving average is $97.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.17.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

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