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

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price objective decreased by Citigroup from $58.00 to $52.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Citigroup’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 27.35% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Celanese from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $76.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.61.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $40.83 on Friday. 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 market cap of $4.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.42 and its 200-day moving average is $82.15. Celanese has a one year low of $39.62 and a one year high of $169.50.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. Equities analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $942,506,000 after acquiring an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. increased 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. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Celanese by 4,506.7% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $162,274,000 after buying an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,286,230,000 after acquiring an additional 2,036,362 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.