Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Lowered to $60.00 at UBS Group

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price objective decreased by UBS Group from $72.00 to $60.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on CE. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.53.

Celanese Stock Down 4.4 %

Celanese stock opened at $52.51 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Celanese has a 1-year low of $51.51 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.01%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -20.10%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. DT Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 128.8% during the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in Celanese by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $308,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,954,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Celanese by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $408,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in Celanese by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 4,197 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $291,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.