Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Cut to $67.00 by Analysts at Robert W. Baird

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target reduced by Robert W. Baird from $110.00 to $67.00 in a report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group cut shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.53.

Celanese Trading Down 4.4 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $52.51 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $68.57 and its 200-day moving average is $97.67. The stock has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.17. Celanese has a twelve month low of $51.51 and a twelve month high of $172.16. 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 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. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.01%. Equities research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -20.10%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Dodge & Cox increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter worth about $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 266.7% during the 4th quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $242,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $162,274,000 after purchasing an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.