Barclays Cuts Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target to $101.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price objective lowered by investment analysts at Barclays from $151.00 to $101.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Barclays‘s target price points to a potential upside of 9.65% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Mizuho lowered their target price on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Bank of America lowered their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Piper Sandler lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $135.59.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $92.11 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $128.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $137.81. Celanese has a one year low of $90.51 and a one year high of $172.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.06 billion, a PE ratio of 5.18, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The business 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 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Celanese by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,899,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,560,608,000 after purchasing an additional 90,206 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Celanese by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,158,773 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,058,447,000 after purchasing an additional 21,085 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Celanese by 14.9% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Celanese by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 14.1% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 378,507 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,057,000 after purchasing an additional 46,732 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.