Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $66.94.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CE shares. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Barclays dropped their target price on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Bank of America decreased their price target on Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its position in Celanese by 6.2% in the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 13,436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,827,000 after buying an additional 780 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Celanese in the third quarter worth approximately $397,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 10.6% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,313,000 after buying an additional 927 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3.4% in the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 7,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $979,000 after buying an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Celanese Price Performance

CE stock opened at $57.14 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $6.25 billion, a PE ratio of -4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $61.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.34. Celanese has a 12-month low of $45.94 and a 12-month high of $172.10.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

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.