Celanese Co. (CE) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 26th

Celanese Co. (NYSE:CE) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be given a dividend of 0.70 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, May 13th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 26th.

Celanese has raised its dividend by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. Celanese has a payout ratio of 20.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Celanese to earn $13.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.1%.

Celanese Stock Performance

NYSE CE opened at $156.08 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. The business’s 50 day moving average is $158.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $144.43. Celanese has a 12-month low of $99.33 and a 12-month high of $172.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.72, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.36.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.29 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.59 billion. Celanese had a return on equity of 14.61% and a net margin of 17.92%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. Research analysts expect that Celanese will post 11.35 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other news, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly acquired 1,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $156.69 per share, with a total value of $219,366.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 57,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,934,933.87. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly purchased 1,400 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $156.69 per share, with a total value of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 57,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,934,933.87. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Mark Christopher Murray purchased 597 shares of Celanese stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $156.43 per share, for a total transaction of $93,388.71. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,814,588. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CE shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Celanese from $180.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Celanese from $165.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. lowered Celanese from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $140.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Celanese in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.56.

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.