BMO Capital Markets Downgrades Celanese (NYSE:CE) to Underperform

BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a market perform rating to an underperform rating in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $76.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $138.00.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Vertical Research lowered Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group downgraded Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $161.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Monday. Piper Sandler downgraded Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $121.35.

Celanese Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $73.94 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. The firm has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $123.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.89. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $72.94 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.17%. The business had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is 28.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 6.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.33% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CE. B&L Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 3rd quarter valued at about $394,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in Celanese by 95.0% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 4,720 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $642,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 472,919 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $64,298,000 after acquiring an additional 28,901 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 46,723 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,352,000 after acquiring an additional 1,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FORA Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Celanese by 33.8% in the 3rd quarter. FORA Capital LLC now owns 25,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,407,000 after purchasing an additional 6,328 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.