Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Receives $61.94 Average Price Target from Analysts

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the seventeen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have issued a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $61.94.

CE has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Vertical Research raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $52.18 per share, with a total value of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $807,120.24. This trade represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Hawaiian Bank grew its position in shares of Celanese by 8.4% in the first quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 16,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Celanese by 28.3% in the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 3,977 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 877 shares during the last quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Celanese by 9.0% in the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 20,823 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,719 shares during the last quarter. Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the first quarter valued at approximately $272,000. Finally, Northeast Financial Consultants Inc acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the first quarter valued at approximately $341,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Down 4.0%

NYSE:CE opened at $54.58 on Friday. Celanese has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $147.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.13. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.37.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Investors of record on Monday, April 28th were issued a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently -0.79%.

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.