Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Receives $120.59 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) has earned an average rating of “Reduce” from the seventeen analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $120.59.

CE has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Barclays lowered their price target on Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. BMO Capital Markets cut Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CE. DT Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 128.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in Celanese during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its stake 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 worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $74.69 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $117.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $131.60. The company has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.51, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese has a twelve month low of $71.38 and a twelve month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.75%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.