Celanese (NYSE:CE) Cut to “Underweight” at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler lowered shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Piper Sandler currently has $98.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $150.00.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.12.

Celanese Trading Down 5.5 %

CE stock traded down $4.92 during trading on Friday, hitting $84.80. 4,420,699 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 868,092. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28. The company has a 50-day moving average of $126.33 and a 200-day moving average of $136.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a PE ratio of 8.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31. Celanese has a 1 year low of $84.75 and a 1 year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.23% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.50 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Celanese will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be given a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DT Investment Partners LLC boosted 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 worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in Celanese during the second quarter valued at $28,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Key Financial Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% during the 2nd quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC bought a new position in Celanese during the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 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.