Celanese (NYSE:CE) Given New $80.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target cut by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $80.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 12.60% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CE. Citigroup lowered 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. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Vertical Research downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.00.

Celanese Stock Up 5.4 %

CE opened at $71.05 on Monday. Celanese has a twelve month low of $64.05 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $71.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $110.59. The stock has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.15, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

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