Celanese (NYSE:CE) Raised to “Neutral” at Piper Sandler

Celanese (NYSE:CE) was upgraded by research analysts at Piper Sandler from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Tuesday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $135.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $112.00. Piper Sandler’s target price indicates a potential upside of 3.39% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Celanese from $146.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Celanese from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 8th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Celanese from $130.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Celanese from $130.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 4th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Celanese from $149.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Celanese Price Performance

NYSE CE opened at $130.57 on Tuesday. Celanese has a 1 year low of $97.12 and a 1 year high of $131.44. The business’s fifty day moving average is $121.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $118.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.04, a P/E/G ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.63.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.30. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.06% and a net margin of 18.93%. The company had revenue of $2.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.94 earnings per share. Celanese’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Celanese will post 9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CE. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Celanese by 14,015.5% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,997,033 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,157,656,000 after acquiring an additional 9,926,210 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Celanese by 67.8% during the 2nd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 4,965,307 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $574,983,000 after purchasing an additional 2,005,881 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Celanese during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $155,102,000. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Celanese by 33.8% in the 1st quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,094,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $445,872,000 after buying an additional 1,035,456 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Celanese by 332.7% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 547,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $78,264,000 after buying an additional 421,200 shares during the period. 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.