Celanese (NYSE:CE) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.17 EPS

Celanese (NYSE:CE) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The basic materials company reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.17, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.67 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 17.92%. The firm’s revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.01 EPS. Celanese updated its Q2 2024 guidance to 2.600-3.000 EPS.

Celanese Price Performance

CE traded down $1.81 during trading on Thursday, reaching $161.46. The stock had a trading volume of 1,481,442 shares, compared to its average volume of 699,726. The stock has a market cap of $17.58 billion, a PE ratio of 9.08, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.53. Celanese has a one year low of $99.33 and a one year high of $172.16. The business has a 50-day moving average of $159.90 and a 200-day moving average of $147.35.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.73%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.64%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CE. Piper Sandler raised Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Mizuho upped their target price on Celanese from $161.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Alembic Global Advisors downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on Celanese from $150.00 to $167.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.94.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total transaction of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares in the company, valued at $11,987,888.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total transaction of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares in the company, valued at $11,987,888.65. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly purchased 1,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $156.69 per share, with a total value of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 57,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,934,933.87. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.