Celanese (NYSE:CE) Upgraded at KeyCorp

KeyCorp upgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a sector weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $76.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock. KeyCorp also issued estimates for Celanese’s FY2026 earnings at $7.61 EPS.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on CE. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.18.

Celanese Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $57.10 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $62.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $86.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese has a twelve month low of $45.94 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The stock has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 33.3% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 34,950 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,419,000 after acquiring an additional 8,740 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,952,000. Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,736,000. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth approximately $216,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Celanese by 155.3% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 23,317 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,614,000 after buying an additional 14,184 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.