Piper Sandler Downgrades Celanese (NYSE:CE) to Underweight

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was downgraded by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $98.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $150.00. Piper Sandler’s target price points to a potential upside of 15.57% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp cut shares of Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Vertical Research downgraded shares of Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Mizuho cut their target price on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America decreased their price target on Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Four equities 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Celanese currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $130.12.

Celanese Trading Down 5.5 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $84.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.53, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $126.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.53. Celanese has a 1 year low of $84.75 and a 1 year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.85 by ($0.41). The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.50 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 10.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Celanese

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norden Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 1st quarter valued at about $363,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Celanese by 109.2% during the 1st 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 during the period. Duality Advisers LP bought a new position in Celanese during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,168,000. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in shares of Celanese by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,599 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $619,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Celanese by 45.8% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 5,326 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $915,000 after purchasing an additional 1,672 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.