Celanese (NYSE:CE) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) shares gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $59.16, but opened at $56.20. Celanese shares last traded at $58.07, with a volume of 402,936 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Alembic Global Advisors raised shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.94.

Celanese Trading Down 1.9 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $6.25 billion, a PE ratio of -4.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.58.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for 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%. Equities analysts expect that Celanese Co. will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CE. Dodge & Cox boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 100.3% in the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Celanese by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,286,230,000 after buying an additional 2,036,362 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Celanese by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after acquiring an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 105.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $274,714,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 266.7% in the fourth quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $242,681,000 after acquiring an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.