Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seventeen analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $66.94.

CE has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors upgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $56.76 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of -4.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.64. Celanese has a one year low of $45.94 and a one year high of $172.10.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its 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. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CE. State Street Corp raised its position in Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 6.5% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,814,000 after acquiring an additional 9,782 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 7.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $134,723,000 after purchasing an additional 69,606 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in Celanese by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $521,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Celanese by 12.5% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 147,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $19,986,000 after purchasing an additional 16,308 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.