Celanese (NYSE:CE) Sets New 12-Month Low on Analyst Downgrade

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Piper Sandler lowered their price target on the stock from $77.00 to $50.00. Piper Sandler currently has an underweight rating on the stock. Celanese traded as low as $50.82 and last traded at $52.88, with a volume of 4729774 shares. The stock had previously closed at $52.76.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup raised shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.31.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Celanese by 103.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group increased its position in shares of Celanese by 52.9% during the 4th quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

Celanese Stock Down 3.1 %

The stock has a market cap of $5.76 billion, a PE ratio of -3.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.17. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $67.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $95.42.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released 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. Celanese had a negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s payout ratio is -0.86%.

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.