Celanese (NYSE:CE) Cut to Equal Weight at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note published on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $115.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $165.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $163.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Vertical Research downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $130.12.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE:CE traded down $1.70 on Tuesday, reaching $88.02. 123,922 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 848,321. The firm has a market cap of $9.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $127.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.16. Celanese has a 52 week low of $87.80 and a 52 week high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.23%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.18%. Celanese’s payout ratio is 28.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 128.8% in the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in Celanese in the second quarter valued at $28,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Celanese during the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Key Financial Inc raised its stake in Celanese by 3,933.3% in the second quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Celanese in the second quarter worth about $40,000. Hedge funds and other 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.