Celanese (NYSE:CE) Lowered to Equal Weight Rating by Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $115.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $165.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $180.00 to $150.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Celanese from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $156.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Bank of America lowered their target price on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 12th. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $130.12.

Celanese Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE CE traded down $1.70 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $88.02. The company had a trading volume of 123,922 shares, compared to its average volume of 848,321. Celanese has a 12-month low of $87.80 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The business’s 50-day moving average is $127.25 and its 200 day moving average is $137.16. The stock has a market cap of $9.62 billion, a PE ratio of 9.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 10.40% and a return on equity of 13.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Celanese will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares in the company, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 109.2% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 24,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,133,000 after purchasing an additional 12,553 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Celanese by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 122,259 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,011,000 after buying an additional 15,643 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 447.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 7,072 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,215,000 after buying an additional 5,781 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Celanese by 264.2% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 19,441 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,342,000 after buying an additional 14,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new position in shares of Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,442,000. 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.