Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Receives $66.67 Average PT from Analysts

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $66.94.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CE. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE opened at $58.30 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $6.37 billion, a PE ratio of -4.19, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. Celanese has a twelve month low of $45.94 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $61.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $85.02.

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. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. As a group, research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,506,000 after acquiring an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 266.7% during the fourth quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $242,681,000 after acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 4,506.7% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $162,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Celanese by 27.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently 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.