Piper Sandler Downgrades Celanese (NYSE:CE) to Underweight

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was downgraded by stock analysts at Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note issued on Friday,Finviz reports. They currently have a $98.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $150.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 9.23% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on CE. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Celanese from $142.00 to $138.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America reduced their price target on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Vertical Research downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Celanese presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $130.12.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE opened at $89.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $127.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.16. Celanese has a 1 year low of $89.12 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a PE ratio of 9.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.23%. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Celanese will post 10.24 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. DT Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Celanese by 128.8% during the 3rd quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Key Financial Inc increased its position in shares of Celanese by 3,933.3% during the second quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 242 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC purchased a new position in Celanese in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.87% of the company’s stock.

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.