Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Rating Lowered by Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a report issued on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $56.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $84.00.

CE has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup raised Celanese to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $73.00 to $76.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Celanese from $98.00 to $77.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.53.

Celanese Stock Performance

CE opened at $52.51 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $68.57 and its 200-day moving average is $97.67. The stock has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a PE ratio of -3.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47. Celanese has a twelve month low of $51.51 and a twelve month high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.01% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. On average, analysts predict that Celanese will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -20.10%.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dodge & Cox raised its stake in Celanese by 100.3% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,618,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,506,000 after purchasing an additional 6,818,993 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Celanese by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,460,353 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,286,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,036,362 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Celanese by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $611,931,000 after purchasing an additional 136,994 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Celanese by 105.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,969,284 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $274,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,033,025 shares during the period. Finally, Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Celanese by 266.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,550,334 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.