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

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Friday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $58.00 to $52.00. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Celanese traded as low as $39.62 and last traded at $41.65, with a volume of 1397850 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $47.20.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Bank of America dropped their price target on Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Celanese from $85.00 to $75.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Mizuho cut their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.61.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dodge & Cox boosted its position in Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 27.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Celanese by 105.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $274,714,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $4.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $82.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given 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 0.29%. Celanese’s payout ratio is -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.