Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Hold" from the fifteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have given a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $152.87.
CE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group cut their target price on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. KeyCorp cut Celanese from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th.
Get Our Latest Report on Celanese
CE opened at $128.87 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $130.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The company has a market cap of $14.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.30. Celanese has a 12-month low of $110.76 and a 12-month high of $172.16.
Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.33). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.17 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Celanese will post 10.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.17%. Celanese's payout ratio is 15.41%.
In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was 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 $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.
Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CE. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in Celanese by 528.9% during the 2nd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $35,142,000 after purchasing an additional 219,095 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Celanese by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in Celanese by 512.5% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 118,149 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $16,064,000 after purchasing an additional 98,860 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Celanese by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $2,560,608,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the period. Finally, Burney Co. raised its stake in Celanese by 4,024.9% during the 1st quarter. Burney Co. now owns 59,893 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $10,293,000 after purchasing an additional 58,441 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.
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.
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