Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target lowered by Barclays from $88.00 to $75.00 in a research report report published on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on CE. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $115.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets downgraded Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.06.

Celanese Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $70.07 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a market capitalization of $7.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.05, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.17. Celanese has a 52-week low of $64.05 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $102.99.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released 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). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Celanese by 27.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after acquiring an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Celanese by 608.2% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after purchasing an additional 592,196 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 139.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 512,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,453,000 after purchasing an additional 298,596 shares during the period. ING Groep NV purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the fourth quarter worth $14,566,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 7.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,145,000 after buying an additional 177,552 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Celanese

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.