Analysts Set Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Price Target at $116.56

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the seventeen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $116.56.

Several brokerages have issued reports on CE. Mizuho cut their target price on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. 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 note on Tuesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Celanese by 27.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after acquiring an additional 177,552 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Celanese by 14.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 0.8% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of CE opened at $68.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Celanese has a 1-year low of $67.03 and a 1-year high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $7.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $97.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.12.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results 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). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.09%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 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.