Celanese Co. (CE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.03 on May 12th

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 16th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th will be given a dividend of 0.03 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, May 12th. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 28th.

Celanese has raised its dividend by an average of 1.0% annually over the last three years. Celanese has a dividend payout ratio of 1.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Celanese to earn $10.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 1.2%.

Celanese Trading Up 6.7 %

Shares of CE stock opened at $40.03 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $53.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -2.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.34. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $36.29 and a fifty-two week high of $169.50.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Celanese from $76.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Celanese from $92.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Celanese from $73.00 to $46.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Celanese from $55.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.33.

Celanese Company Profile

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.