Barclays Cuts Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target to $88.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price objective decreased by Barclays from $101.00 to $88.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Celanese from $163.00 to $122.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.59.

Celanese Price Performance

Celanese stock opened at $75.04 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $118.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.00. Celanese has a 12-month low of $71.38 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The stock has a market cap of $8.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.55, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.73%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CE. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd 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 buying an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in Celanese by 608.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 689,570 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $93,754,000 after acquiring an additional 592,196 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 528.9% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 260,523 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,142,000 after acquiring an additional 219,095 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $353,145,000 after purchasing an additional 177,552 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Celanese by 14.9% during the second 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 in 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.