Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Cut to $54.00 by Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target cut by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $92.00 to $54.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on CE. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Celanese from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Bank of America upgraded Celanese from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $95.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Celanese from $110.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup upgraded Celanese to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $73.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price target on Celanese from $120.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.53.

Celanese Trading Down 4.4 %

Shares of Celanese stock opened at $52.51 on Thursday. Celanese has a 52-week low of $51.51 and a 52-week high of $172.16. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.17. 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 (NYSE:CE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.25 by $0.20. Celanese had a positive return on equity of 12.01% and a negative net margin of 14.81%. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.36 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

Celanese Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -20.10%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CE. DT Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Celanese by 128.8% in the third quarter. DT Investment Partners LLC now owns 183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in Celanese in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Celanese by 103.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming boosted its stake in Celanese by 122.5% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CKW Financial Group boosted its stake in Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.