Celanese (NYSE:CE) Upgraded by Alembic Global Advisors to Overweight Rating

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was upgraded by analysts at Alembic Global Advisors from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued on Monday. The brokerage currently has a $70.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock. Alembic Global Advisors’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 22.60% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on Celanese from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Bank of America cut their target price on Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.18.

Celanese Trading Up 7.5 %

CE stock opened at $57.10 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. Celanese has a 52 week low of $45.94 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.74.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dodge & Cox boosted its stake in Celanese by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,506,000 after buying an additional 6,818,993 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter worth $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. raised its position 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 worth $242,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $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.

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.