Robert W. Baird Lowers Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target to $110.00

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its target price trimmed by Robert W. Baird from $150.00 to $110.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

CE has been the subject of several other research reports. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $167.00 to $163.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Celanese from $170.00 to $151.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $135.59.

Celanese Stock Up 1.6 %

CE stock opened at $92.44 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $10.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.26, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. Celanese has a 12 month low of $90.51 and a 12 month high of $172.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $128.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $137.49.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Celanese will post 10.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is currently 15.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were 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 approximately $9,033,840.54. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CE. Norden Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the first quarter valued at about $363,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 109.2% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 24,047 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,133,000 after buying an additional 12,553 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Celanese by 12.2% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 10,263 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,764,000 after buying an additional 1,118 shares in the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Celanese by 204.2% during the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duality Advisers LP purchased a new stake in Celanese during the first quarter worth about $1,168,000. Hedge funds and other 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.