Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Celanese Corporation has received an average recommendation of "Hold" from 17 ratings firms, with 1 sell, 10 hold, and 6 buy recommendations.
• The average 1-year target price for Celanese's stock is $66.50, reflecting various analysts' adjustments to their price targets.
• Celanese recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.03 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend of $0.12 and a yield of 0.20%.

Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seventeen analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have given a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $66.50.

CE has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Celanese from $51.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Bank of America increased their target price on Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Piper Sandler reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $48.00 target price (down previously from $50.00) on shares of Celanese in a research report on Monday, April 7th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Celanese from $76.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th.

Celanese Trading Down 2.8%

NYSE CE traded down $1.54 on Monday, hitting $52.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 298,926 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,784,579. Celanese has a 52-week low of $36.29 and a 52-week high of $144.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $56.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.91. The firm has a market cap of $5.76 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.48, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.14.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 11.28% and a negative net margin of 16.54%. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. The business's revenue was down 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 29th will be given a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 29th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. Celanese's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -0.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Celanese news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray acquired 1,479 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 23rd. The shares were acquired 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 directly owned 15,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $807,120.24. The trade was a 10.57% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dodge & Cox raised its position in Celanese by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Celanese during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $222,815,000. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 266.7% during the fourth quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,506,440 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $242,681,000 after buying an additional 2,550,334 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 4,506.7% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,344,661 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $162,274,000 after buying an additional 2,293,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 134.4% during 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 buying an additional 2,044,662 shares during 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.