Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Lowered to $46.00 at BMO Capital Markets

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target lowered by equities research analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $73.00 to $46.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underperform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective indicates a potential downside of 12.79% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on CE. Barclays dropped their target price on Celanese from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.53.

Celanese Trading Up 0.3 %

CE opened at $52.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.17. Celanese has a 52 week low of $51.24 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The business’s 50 day moving average is $68.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. On average, research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in Celanese by 155.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,049,000 after purchasing an additional 130,037 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management grew its stake in Celanese by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,814,000 after purchasing an additional 9,782 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its stake in Celanese by 21.7% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $31,744,000 after purchasing an additional 41,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Celanese by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.