Celanese (CE) – Investment Analysts’ Weekly Ratings Updates

Posted by Donald Scott on Apr 19th, 2024

Several analysts have recently updated their ratings and price targets for Celanese (NYSE: CE):

4/19/2024 – Celanese had its price target raised by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $165.00 to $171.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
4/10/2024 – Celanese had its price target raised by analysts at Citigroup Inc. from $150.00 to $167.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
4/9/2024 – Celanese had its price target raised by analysts at KeyCorp from $176.00 to $190.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
4/4/2024 – Celanese had its “underweight” rating reaffirmed by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.. They now have a $160.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $135.00.
4/4/2024 – Celanese was downgraded by analysts at Barclays PLC from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating. They now have a $170.00 price target on the stock.
3/22/2024 – Celanese had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $180.00 to $195.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
2/26/2024 – Celanese was upgraded by analysts at Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating. They now have a $170.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $135.00.
2/26/2024 – Celanese had its price target lowered by analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $168.00 to $165.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
2/22/2024 – Celanese was downgraded by analysts at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating. They now have a $140.00 price target on the stock.
2/22/2024 – Celanese had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $167.00 to $180.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
2/22/2024 – Celanese had its price target raised by analysts at Robert W. Baird from $135.00 to $165.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
2/21/2024 – Celanese was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating.

Celanese Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:CE traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $154.69. The company had a trading volume of 200,347 shares, compared to its average volume of 714,408. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $157.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $143.64. The stock has a market cap of $16.85 billion, a PE ratio of 8.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.36. Celanese Co. has a 1-year low of $99.33 and a 1-year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $2.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.59 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 14.61%. Celanese’s revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Celanese Co. will post 11.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 13th. Investors of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 597 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $156.43 per share, with a total value of $93,388.71. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,600 shares in the company, valued at $1,814,588. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 597 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $156.43 per share, with a total value of $93,388.71. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,814,588. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total value of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,987,888.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,809,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,300,907,000 after buying an additional 468,003 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,077,014 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,031,776,000 after purchasing an additional 354,367 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Celanese by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 11,337,115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,761,567,000 after purchasing an additional 329,740 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Celanese by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,529,064 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,325,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Celanese by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,774,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $846,559,000 after purchasing an additional 131,705 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.