Celanese (NYSE:CE) Rating Increased to Buy at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) from an underperform rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $88.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $95.00.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Celanese from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $138.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Celanese from $102.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Celanese from $100.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $106.00.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE:CE opened at $71.05 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 1.37. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $64.05 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The company has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.15, a PEG ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $71.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $110.14.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 13.17% and a net margin of 10.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.50 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 30th. Celanese’s payout ratio is presently 28.17%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Celanese by 403.1% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 107,855 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $7,465,000 after purchasing an additional 86,416 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at $555,000. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 93.9% during the fourth quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 16,812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,164,000 after buying an additional 8,142 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital bought a new position in Celanese during the fourth quarter worth $286,000. Finally, Matrix Trust Co lifted its holdings in Celanese by 1,186.2% in the fourth quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 1,402 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 1,293 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.