Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price Up 6.7% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) shot up 6.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $72.08 and last traded at $71.87. 558,439 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 1,959,592 shares. The stock had previously closed at $67.38.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Bank of America upgraded Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays lowered their target price on Celanese from $101.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $106.00.

Celanese Stock Up 1.3 %

The firm has a market cap of $7.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.24, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $109.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Celanese Co. will post 8.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. DT Investment Partners LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 128.8% in the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its position in Celanese by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 2,265 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $308,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its position in Celanese by 7.0% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 2,064 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,954,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Neumann Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Celanese by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Neumann Capital Management LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. 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.