Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Lowered to $52.00 at Citigroup

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target cut by Citigroup from $58.00 to $52.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

CE has been the topic of a number of other research reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Vertical Research upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.61.

Celanese Trading Down 13.5 %

Shares of NYSE CE opened at $40.83 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.15. Celanese has a twelve month low of $39.62 and a twelve month high of $169.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of -2.93, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its position in Celanese by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after acquiring an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Zacks Investment Management increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 6.5% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,814,000 after purchasing an additional 9,782 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares during the last quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $701,000 after purchasing an additional 6,197 shares during the period. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank grew its position in Celanese by 116.0% in the 4th quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 15,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,066,000 after buying an additional 8,269 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.