Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Lowered to $110.00 at Robert W. Baird

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target reduced by Robert W. Baird from $150.00 to $110.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Vertical Research downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $135.59.

Celanese Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $92.44 on Wednesday. Celanese has a 1 year low of $90.51 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $128.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $137.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a PE ratio of 5.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31. 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 (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.50 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Celanese will post 10.24 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Celanese by 0.6% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,560,608,000 after acquiring an additional 90,206 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Celanese by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,058,447,000 after purchasing an additional 21,085 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of 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 worth $156,663,000 after purchasing an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Celanese by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 14.1% during the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 378,507 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,057,000 after purchasing an additional 46,732 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.