Celanese (NYSE:CE) Reaches New 1-Year Low on Analyst Downgrade

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday after Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from $122.00 to $88.00. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Celanese traded as low as $66.99 and last traded at $67.03, with a volume of 2354418 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $67.94.

CE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Citigroup dropped their price target on Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lowered shares of Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler downgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. 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, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $110.50.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CE. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Celanese by 33.3% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,826 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $246,000 after buying an additional 456 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 125.0% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 540 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 73,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,981,000 after purchasing an additional 2,862 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Celanese during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Finally, Access Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Celanese by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Access Financial Services Inc. now owns 9,840 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,327,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $94.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $120.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th were paid a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.18%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.