Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its target price lowered by Barclays from $75.00 to $59.00 in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

CE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Vertical Research lowered shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup upgraded Celanese to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $78.00.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE stock opened at $52.88 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $67.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $96.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Celanese has a 12-month low of $50.82 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a PE ratio of -3.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $308,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 0.7% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,954,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 5.3% in the third quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $408,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Celanese by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $715,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.