Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Raised to $75.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target increased by Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from $70.00 to $75.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also commented on CE. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.94.

Celanese Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $58.30 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $61.93 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $85.02. The company has a market cap of $6.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.19, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. 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 has a one year low of $45.94 and a one year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. Analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently -0.86%.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. State Street Corp boosted its position in Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after acquiring an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 6.5% during the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 160,443 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,814,000 after purchasing an additional 9,782 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in Celanese by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,213 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in Celanese by 12.5% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 147,001 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $19,986,000 after purchasing an additional 16,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Celanese by 157.8% during the fourth quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,124 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $701,000 after buying an additional 6,197 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.