Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target cut by Morgan Stanley from $140.00 to $100.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also issued reports on CE. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $130.12.

Celanese Trading Down 5.5 %

NYSE CE opened at $84.80 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Celanese has a 12-month low of $84.75 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $126.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $136.53.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.50 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Celanese will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 28.17%.

Insider Activity

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CE. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 128.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new position in Celanese in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Celanese during the first quarter worth about $31,000. Key Financial Inc increased its position in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% during the second quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.