Royal Bank of Canada Cuts Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target to $163.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price objective trimmed by Royal Bank of Canada from $167.00 to $163.00 in a report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America lowered their price target on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an underperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 12th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Celanese from an overweight rating to a sector weight rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Piper Sandler cut Celanese from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $152.87.

Celanese Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $135.66 on Friday. Celanese has a 52-week low of $110.76 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The stock has a market cap of $14.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.47, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day moving average of $128.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.17 earnings per share. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Celanese will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.06%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 15.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in Celanese during the 1st quarter worth $31,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 1st quarter worth $31,000. Key Financial Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% in the second quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the second quarter worth about $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.