Celanese (NYSE:CE) Shares Up 7.9% - What's Next?

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 7.9% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $52.84 and last traded at $52.01. Approximately 744,057 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 3,134,922 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.21.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CE has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Celanese from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $72.31.

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Celanese Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a PE ratio of -3.97, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $91.95.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.36 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Celanese's payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dodge & Cox lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Celanese by 27.4% in 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. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Celanese by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in Celanese by 105.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $274,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Celanese by 266.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.