Royal Bank of Canada Lowers Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target to $88.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its target price lowered by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $122.00 to $88.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target points to a potential upside of 28.94% from the company’s current price.

CE has been the subject of a number of other reports. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Mizuho dropped 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. Vertical Research lowered shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $110.50.

Celanese Stock Performance

Celanese stock opened at $68.25 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $92.03 and its 200-day moving average price is $119.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The company has a market cap of $7.46 billion, a PE ratio of 6.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. Celanese has a twelve month low of $66.73 and a twelve month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.50 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 11.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 128,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,430,000 after purchasing an additional 13,503 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in Celanese during the third quarter worth $1,302,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Celanese during the 3rd quarter valued at $179,000. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co now owns 17,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,365,000 after acquiring an additional 3,906 shares during the period. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in shares of Celanese by 36.3% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 47,678 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,482,000 after acquiring an additional 12,701 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.