Celanese (NYSE:CE) Rating Lowered to “Neutral” at UBS Group

UBS Group downgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $97.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $161.00.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $121.35.

Celanese Trading Down 2.3 %

CE opened at $74.00 on Monday. 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 fifty-two week low of $73.55 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a PE ratio of 7.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. The company’s 50-day moving average is $123.30 and its 200 day moving average is $134.89.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.50 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.78%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 28.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Celanese by 608.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after acquiring an additional 592,196 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 528.9% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,142,000 after acquiring an additional 219,095 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $156,663,000 after acquiring an additional 150,201 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Celanese by 155.5% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,049,000 after acquiring an additional 130,037 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 512.5% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 118,149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,064,000 after acquiring an additional 98,860 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.