Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price Down 5.2% Following Analyst Downgrade

Key Points

• Celanese Corporation's stock price dropped by 5.2% after Jefferies Financial Group downgraded its price target from $47.00 to $43.00, maintaining a hold rating on the stock.
• In a recent report, Zacks Research also shifted Celanese's rating from "hold" to "strong sell," while other analysts have set various target prices ranging from $45.00 to $70.00.
• Despite the downgrade, Celanese reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings of $1.44 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates and showing a revenue of $2.53 billion.

Celanese Corporation (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report)'s stock price was down 5.2% during trading on Monday after Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on the stock from $47.00 to $43.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a hold rating on the stock. Celanese traded as low as $45.65 and last traded at $46.22. Approximately 366,255 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average daily volume of 2,759,258 shares. The stock had previously closed at $48.73.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on CE. Zacks Research lowered shares of Celanese from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Celanese from $63.00 to $45.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 14th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Celanese from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $57.22.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 182.1% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 5,081,458 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $281,157,000 after buying an additional 3,280,109 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 266.7% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Celanese in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $114,934,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Celanese by 134.4% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Dodge & Cox raised its position in shares of Celanese by 13.0% in the 1st quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 15,391,416 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $873,771,000 after buying an additional 1,773,354 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.87% of the company's stock.

Celanese Stock Down 3.7%

The firm's 50-day moving average price is $52.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.41. The company has a market capitalization of $5.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.15, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.50 billion. Celanese had a negative net margin of 16.30% and a positive return on equity of 10.48%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.38 EPS. Celanese has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 1.100-1.400 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Celanese Corporation will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

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

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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