Morgan Stanley Lowers Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target to $80.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price objective cut by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $80.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 12.60% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on CE. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. KeyCorp lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $106.00.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE opened at $71.05 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $71.89 and a 200-day moving average of $110.59. 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 company has a market capitalization of $7.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.18. Celanese has a 1 year low of $64.05 and a 1 year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Celanese by 27.4% during the third 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 136,994 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 7.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,145,000 after acquiring an additional 177,552 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 14.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,663,000 after acquiring an additional 150,201 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 7.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $134,723,000 after acquiring an additional 69,606 shares during 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.