Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Cut to $163.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its target price cut by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $167.00 to $163.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 19.69% from the stock’s previous close.

CE has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.87.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE opened at $136.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Celanese has a one year low of $110.76 and a one year high of $172.16. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $128.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $142.12. The company has a market capitalization of $14.87 billion, a PE ratio of 7.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.30.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.71 by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.17 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Celanese will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in Celanese during the first quarter worth about $31,000. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in Celanese during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Key Financial Inc grew its holdings in Celanese by 3,933.3% during the second quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the period. Finally, Register Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Celanese in the first quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 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.