Robert W. Baird Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price

Key Points

• Robert W. Baird has cut its price target for Celanese from $67.00 to $50.00, maintaining an "outperform" rating, indicating a potential upside of 21.21% from the current price.
• Other analysts have varying target prices for Celanese, with BMO Capital Markets setting it at $55.00 and Barclays increasing it to $62.00.
• Celanese shares are currently trading down 13.0%, with recent earnings showing $1.44 earnings per share, surpassing expectations.

Celanese (NYSE:CE - Get Free Report) had its price target dropped by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from $67.00 to $50.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "outperform" rating on the basic materials company's stock. Robert W. Baird's target price would suggest a potential upside of 17.54% from the company's current price.

CE has been the topic of several other research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Celanese from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Celanese from $55.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Celanese from $66.00 to $49.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Celanese from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $55.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Celanese from $59.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $59.94.

Celanese Price Performance

Shares of CE traded down $0.08 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $42.54. 1,772,997 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,658,702. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 2.05. Celanese has a 12-month low of $36.29 and a 12-month high of $142.54. The company has a market cap of $4.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $54.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.76.

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 for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.38 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.50 billion. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 10.48% and a negative net margin of 16.30%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.38 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, SVP Mark Christopher Murray bought 1,479 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 23rd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $52.18 per share, for a total transaction of $77,174.22. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president directly owned 15,468 shares of the company's stock, valued at $807,120.24. This trade represents a 10.57% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 73.2% during the first quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 440 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in Celanese during the first quarter valued at about $30,000. State of Wyoming increased its stake in Celanese by 122.5% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Celanese by 55.4% during the second quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 623 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the period. 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.