Celanese (NYSE:CE) Upgraded at KeyCorp

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was upgraded by stock analysts at KeyCorp from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $76.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock. KeyCorp’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 33.91% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho cut their price objective on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on Celanese from $85.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Celanese to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.18.

Celanese Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $56.75 on Friday. 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 1 year low of $45.94 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The firm has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of -4.07, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.30.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. Analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dodge & Cox boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,506,000 after buying an additional 6,818,993 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at about $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 266.7% during the 4th quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $242,681,000 after acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $162,274,000 after acquiring an additional 2,293,764 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 27.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.