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

Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $153.13.

Several research analysts have issued reports on CE shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $180.00 to $150.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Barclays decreased their price target on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Celanese from $160.00 to $135.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th.

Celanese Stock Down 0.8 %

CE stock opened at $135.58 on Tuesday. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $110.76 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $14.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.30. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $129.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $142.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.17 EPS. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Celanese will post 10.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 30th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.41%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the second quarter worth about $28,000. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Celanese in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Celanese during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Celanese in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.