Celanese (NYSE:CE) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.41 EPS

Celanese (NYSE:CE) posted its earnings results on Monday. The basic materials company reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by ($0.41), Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $2.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. Celanese had a net margin of 18.24% and a return on equity of 13.60%. Celanese’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.50 EPS. Celanese updated its Q4 guidance to $1.25 EPS and its Q4 2024 guidance to 1.250-1.250 EPS.

Celanese Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE CE traded up $1.44 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $92.44. The company had a trading volume of 4,759,873 shares, compared to its average volume of 839,740. Celanese has a fifty-two week low of $90.51 and a fifty-two week high of $172.16. The company has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $128.78 and its 200 day moving average is $137.81.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.94%.

Insider Activity at Celanese

In other Celanese news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total value of $605,459.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on CE. KeyCorp downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Vertical Research downgraded Celanese from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Mizuho cut their price target on Celanese from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group cut their price target on Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Celanese from $150.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $135.59.

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.