Celanese (NYSE:CE) Cut to Sector Perform at Royal Bank of Canada

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was downgraded by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report issued on Thursday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They presently have a $56.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $84.00. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target indicates a potential upside of 2.09% from the company’s current price.

CE has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group lowered shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $161.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.35.

Celanese Stock Down 21.5 %

Shares of CE opened at $54.86 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.98. Celanese has a one year low of $52.97 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $6.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.52, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.17. 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 (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. DT Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 128.8% in the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its position in Celanese by 5.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $308,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 0.7% during the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,954,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the period. Neumann Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 5.3% during the third quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $408,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth boosted its position in Celanese by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 4,197 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.