Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Cut to $184.00 by Analysts at UBS Group

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price objective reduced by UBS Group from $193.00 to $184.00 in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on CE. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Celanese from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $195.00 to $180.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Celanese from $176.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a market perform rating and set a $158.00 price target on shares of Celanese in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $148.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $159.65.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $139.19 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $146.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $151.58. Celanese has a twelve month low of $110.76 and a twelve month high of $172.16. The firm has a market cap of $15.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.30.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $2.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.67 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.60% and a return on equity of 14.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.01 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Celanese will post 11.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 13th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 26th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 15.41%.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Greenfield Savings Bank raised its position in Celanese by 22.7% during the second quarter. Greenfield Savings Bank now owns 2,561 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 18.2% in the second quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 882 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. DNB Asset Management AS raised its position in shares of Celanese by 15.7% in the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 20,911 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,844 shares during the period. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its position in shares of Celanese by 34.1% in the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Celanese by 17.4% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.