Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $61.94.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CE. Mizuho set a $45.00 price objective on Celanese in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Vertical Research raised Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $66.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Celanese from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th.

Insider Transactions at Celanese

In related news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 1,479 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 23rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,468 shares in the company, valued at $807,120.24. The trade was a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in Celanese in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC grew its holdings in Celanese by 73.2% in the first quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 440 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in Celanese in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. State of Wyoming grew its holdings in Celanese by 122.5% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. Finally, Mather Group LLC. grew its holdings in Celanese by 127.0% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 622 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Celanese Price Performance

CE opened at $55.40 on Friday. Celanese has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $150.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $47.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.97. The company has a market capitalization of $6.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.98, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.13.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.08 EPS. The business's revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were paid a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 28th. Celanese's payout ratio is -0.79%.

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.

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