Celanese (NYSE:CE) Rating Increased to Overweight at KeyCorp

KeyCorp upgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a sector weight rating to an overweight rating in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. KeyCorp currently has $76.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock.

CE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $84.00 to $56.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $77.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $88.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.18.

Celanese Price Performance

Celanese stock opened at $57.10 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $62.84 and a 200-day moving average of $86.79. Celanese has a 52-week low of $45.94 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.23.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.86% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.36 billion. As a group, analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently -0.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Celanese by 6.2% during the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 13,436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,827,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC boosted its stake in Celanese by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 7,371 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,002,000 after purchasing an additional 599 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in Celanese in the 3rd quarter worth about $397,000. Commerce Bank increased its stake in shares of Celanese by 45.0% in the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 14,661 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,993,000 after purchasing an additional 4,552 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Celanese by 10.6% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,313,000 after buying an additional 927 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.