Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Reduce" from Brokerages

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Reduce" from the seventeen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $109.33.

CE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $122.00 to $88.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Celanese from a "market perform" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Vertical Research lowered shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating and set a $130.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Mizuho lowered their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Monday, October 7th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp raised its position in Celanese by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $611,931,000 after acquiring an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 155.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 213,657 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $29,049,000 after purchasing an additional 130,037 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $21,814,000 after purchasing an additional 9,782 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in Celanese by 21.7% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 233,480 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $31,744,000 after buying an additional 41,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in 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 valued at $134,723,000 after buying an additional 69,606 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE CE traded down $1.42 on Thursday, hitting $64.88. 2,651,798 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,332,820. Celanese has a 52-week low of $64.36 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $75.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $112.27.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.17%.

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.