Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Celanese Corporation has a consensus rating of "Hold" from twenty analysts, with three sell ratings, ten holds, and seven buys. The average one-year price target for the stock is $56.33.
• Shares of Celanese recently traded down by 6.9%, with current prices around $39.29, a significant decline from its 12-month high of $137.36.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $1.44, surpassing the consensus estimate by $0.06, despite a 4.5% decline in revenue year-over-year.

Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the twenty analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have given a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $56.3333.

CE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $65.00 to $59.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Celanese in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Alembic Global Advisors set a $60.00 target price on shares of Celanese in a research note on Monday, August 25th.

Celanese Trading Down 6.9%

Shares of CE stock opened at $39.29 on Friday. Celanese has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $137.36. The company has a market capitalization of $4.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $44.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.06. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.30% and a positive return on equity of 10.48%. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.50 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.38 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Celanese has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.100-1.400 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 29th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio is currently -0.81%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Timothy Go acquired 1,039 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $46.25 per share, with a total value of $48,053.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 4,415 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $204,193.75. The trade was a 30.78% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CE. Dodge & Cox lifted its stake in Celanese by 13.0% in the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 15,391,416 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $873,771,000 after acquiring an additional 1,773,354 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Celanese by 182.1% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 5,081,458 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $281,157,000 after acquiring an additional 3,280,109 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Celanese by 3.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,828,747 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $211,845,000 after acquiring an additional 120,208 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Celanese by 134.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,566,226 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $202,455,000 after acquiring an additional 2,044,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Celanese by 35.0% in the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,164,150 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $179,629,000 after acquiring an additional 819,489 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.87% of the company's stock.

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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