Celanese (NYSE:CE) Rating Lowered to “Sell” at Vertical Research

Vertical Research downgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $130.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on CE. Bank of America cut their price objective on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. KeyCorp cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Piper Sandler cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $156.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $151.44.

Celanese Price Performance

CE opened at $124.81 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $129.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Celanese has a 1 year low of $114.05 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The firm has a market cap of $13.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.10, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.30.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.71 by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.76 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 18.24%. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Celanese will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, 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 SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CE. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Celanese by 128.8% during the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Celanese during the second quarter valued at $28,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Celanese during the first quarter valued at $31,000. Key Financial Inc increased its position in 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Celanese during the second quarter valued at $40,000. 98.87% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.