Celanese (NYSE:CE) Rating Increased to Buy at Bank of America

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was upgraded by equities researchers at Bank of America from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $88.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $95.00. Bank of America‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 23.82% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Vertical Research lowered shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, UBS Group cut Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $106.00.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $71.07 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $71.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $109.87. Celanese has a one year low of $64.05 and a one year high of $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results 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). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.38 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Celanese by 35.0% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,041 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $210,000 after buying an additional 789 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 51.1% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 1,129 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 208.9% during the 4th quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 225,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $15,600,000 after acquiring an additional 152,441 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in Celanese by 403.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 107,855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,465,000 after purchasing an additional 86,416 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in Celanese in the fourth quarter worth $555,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.