Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Rating Lowered by Royal Bank of Canada

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have a $56.00 price target on the basic materials company's stock, down from their prior price target of $84.00. Royal Bank of Canada's target price suggests a potential upside of 6.17% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on CE. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup upgraded Celanese to a "neutral" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Celanese from $88.00 to $75.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $83.53.

Celanese Trading Up 0.3 %

CE stock traded up $0.14 during trading on Thursday, hitting $52.75. The company had a trading volume of 5,328,541 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,719,022. The stock has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.79, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $68.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $97.16. Celanese has a 12 month low of $51.24 and a 12 month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. As a group, analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CE. Dodge & Cox lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $942,506,000 after buying an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter worth approximately $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Celanese by 266.7% during the 4th quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $242,681,000 after acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $162,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. 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.