By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE – Free Report) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $56.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $84.00.
A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on CE. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group downgraded 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 research note on Monday, November 11th. Citigroup upgraded Celanese to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Vertical Research lowered Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.00.
View Our Latest Analysis on Celanese
Celanese Price Performance
Celanese stock opened at $52.75 on Thursday. 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 business has a fifty day moving average of $68.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.95. Celanese has a one year low of $51.24 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17.
Celanese (NYSE:CE – Get Free Report) last announced 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 positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Celanese Cuts Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. DT Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 103.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming grew its stake in Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CKW Financial Group increased its stake in Celanese by 52.9% in the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.
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.
Further Reading
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