Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) to Issue $0.03 Quarterly Dividend

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 16th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.03 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, May 12th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 28th.

Celanese has increased its dividend by an average of 1.0% annually over the last three years. Celanese has a payout ratio of 1.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Celanese to earn $10.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 1.2%.

Celanese Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE CE traded down $0.74 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $39.35. 2,281,708 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,991,551. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Celanese has a 1-year low of $36.29 and a 1-year high of $169.50. The stock has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.82, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.34.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. On average, analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CE shares. Mizuho set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Celanese in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Celanese from $60.00 to $46.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of Celanese from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $61.33.

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.