Celanese (NYSE:CE) Price Target Increased to $171.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $165.00 to $171.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target points to a potential upside of 10.46% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Celanese from $150.00 to $167.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Alembic Global Advisors lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. UBS Group raised their target price on Celanese from $169.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, Barclays lowered Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $170.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $149.56.

Celanese Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:CE traded up $0.19 on Friday, hitting $154.81. The stock had a trading volume of 158,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 713,957. The stock has a market cap of $16.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.61 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.53. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $157.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $143.64. Celanese has a 1 year low of $99.33 and a 1 year high of $172.16.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The basic materials company reported $2.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.29 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $2.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.59 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 17.92% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Analysts predict that Celanese will post 11.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total value of $313,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 76,429 shares in the company, valued at $11,987,888.65. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Thomas Francis Kelly bought 1,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $156.69 per share, with a total value of $219,366.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president now owns 57,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,934,933.87. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.85, for a total transaction of $313,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 76,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,987,888.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.33% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Celanese

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Celanese by 43.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,137,688 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $953,653,000 after purchasing an additional 1,852,099 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Celanese in the 4th quarter valued at about $155,102,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Celanese by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,529,064 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,325,161,000 after purchasing an additional 1,302,758 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Celanese by 9.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,340,305 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $795,835,000 after purchasing an additional 570,501 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Celanese by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,809,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,300,907,000 after purchasing an additional 468,003 shares during the period. 98.87% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.