Celanese Co. to Post FY2024 Earnings of $11.20 Per Share, Zacks Research Forecasts (NYSE:CE)

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) – Analysts at Zacks Research lifted their FY2024 earnings per share estimates for Celanese in a report released on Tuesday, May 28th. Zacks Research analyst S. Rathi now anticipates that the basic materials company will post earnings per share of $11.20 for the year, up from their prior estimate of $11.02. The consensus estimate for Celanese’s current full-year earnings is $11.47 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Celanese’s Q4 2024 earnings at $3.11 EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at $3.43 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $13.23 EPS.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on CE. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Celanese from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. downgraded Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $140.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Celanese from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on Celanese from $161.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $156.78.

Celanese Stock Up 0.5 %

CE opened at $152.04 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $158.82 and a 200-day moving average of $151.72. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $103.23 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.17. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.00% and a net margin of 18.60%. The company had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.01 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $2,560,608,000 after buying an additional 90,206 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,077,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,031,776,000 after buying an additional 354,367 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,337,115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,761,567,000 after buying an additional 329,740 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,529,064 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,325,161,000 after buying an additional 1,302,758 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,340,305 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $795,835,000 after buying an additional 570,501 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In related news, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly bought 1,400 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $156.69 per share, for a total transaction of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 57,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,934,933.87. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly bought 1,400 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $156.69 per share, for a total transaction of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 57,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,934,933.87. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 597 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $156.43 per share, for a total transaction of $93,388.71. Following the completion of the acquisition, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,814,588. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 26th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.41%.

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.