Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) Receives $63.11 Average PT from Brokerages

Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $64.61.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CE. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Celanese from $71.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group raised their target price on Celanese from $51.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $48.00 target price (down previously from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a report on Monday, April 7th. Mizuho set a $45.00 price target on Celanese in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $46.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th.

Celanese Stock Up 0.5%

CE stock opened at $60.67 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The stock has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.99, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50 day moving average is $54.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.84. Celanese has a twelve month low of $36.29 and a twelve month high of $147.86.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.26 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.54% and a positive return on equity of 11.28%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.08 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president directly owned 15,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $807,120.24. This represents a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 73.2% during the 1st quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 122.5% during the 4th quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 739.1% during the 4th quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 473 shares in 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.