KeyCorp Upgrades Celanese (NYSE:CE) to “Overweight”

KeyCorp upgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a sector weight rating to an overweight rating in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $76.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock. KeyCorp also issued estimates for Celanese’s FY2026 earnings at $7.61 EPS.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on CE. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.18.

Celanese Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $57.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. The company has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a PE ratio of -4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. Celanese has a 52 week low of $45.94 and a 52 week high of $172.16. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.25.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. As a group, research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is -0.86%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CE. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Celanese by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 13,436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,827,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 7,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,002,000 after purchasing an additional 599 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Celanese during the 3rd quarter worth about $397,000. Commerce Bank increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 45.0% during the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 14,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,993,000 after purchasing an additional 4,552 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 10.6% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,313,000 after purchasing an additional 927 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.