Celanese (NYSE:CE) Raised to “Overweight” at Alembic Global Advisors

Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $70.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on CE. Barclays dropped their price target on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Celanese from $75.00 to $55.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.18.

Celanese Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $58.00 on Monday. 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 company has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.16, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.74. Celanese has a 1-year low of $45.94 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Celanese by 103.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming lifted its stake in Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. CKW Financial Group lifted its stake in Celanese by 52.9% during the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC lifted its stake in Celanese by 739.1% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. 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.