Celanese (NYSE:CE) Sets New 12-Month Low Following Analyst Downgrade

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week low on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $55.00 to $40.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Celanese traded as low as $39.62 and last traded at $41.65, with a volume of 1397850 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $47.20.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on CE. Piper Sandler restated an "underweight" rating and issued a $48.00 price target (down from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Vertical Research raised shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. KeyCorp raised shares of Celanese from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $76.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $63.89.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Celanese in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 103.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the period. State of Wyoming boosted its position in Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. CKW Financial Group raised its position in Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Finally, LRI Investments LLC lifted its position in Celanese by 739.1% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Celanese Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $4.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. 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 business's fifty day simple moving average is $57.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.97.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. Research analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. Celanese's payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

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.