Royal Bank of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target lowered by Royal Bank of Canada from $122.00 to $88.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on CE. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Piper Sandler lowered Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $150.00 to $98.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $110.50.

Celanese Stock Performance

Shares of CE stock opened at $68.25 on Thursday. Celanese has a 12 month low of $66.73 and a 12 month high of $172.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.46 billion, a PE ratio of 6.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $92.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $119.05. 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 (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The business had revenue of $2.65 billion during 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 13.17%. Celanese’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.50 EPS. Analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.17%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CE. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Celanese by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,500,813 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $611,931,000 after buying an additional 136,994 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,606,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $353,145,000 after acquiring an additional 177,552 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Celanese by 14.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,161,298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,663,000 after acquiring an additional 150,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Celanese by 0.8% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,085,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $146,426,000 after purchasing an additional 8,700 shares in the last quarter. 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.