Celanese (NYSE:CE) Upgraded at Piper Sandler

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was upgraded by stock analysts at Piper Sandler from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday, Briefing.com reports. The firm presently has a $135.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $112.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 3.39% from the company’s previous close.

CE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $111.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th. Citigroup upped their target price on Celanese from $130.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $135.00 to $122.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Celanese from $146.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE:CE opened at $130.57 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.21 billion, a PE ratio of 7.04, a P/E/G ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a fifty day moving average of $121.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $118.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.63. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $97.12 and a fifty-two week high of $131.44.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.30. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.06% and a net margin of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $2.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.94 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CE. NorthRock Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the second quarter worth $209,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in Celanese by 158.4% during the 1st quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 323 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Celanese by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 21,180 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,306,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 55.0% in the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 2,161 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $235,000 after buying an additional 767 shares during the period. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its position in shares of Celanese by 2.3% during the first quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 6,240 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $679,000 after buying an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.