Wells Fargo & Company Has Lowered Expectations for Celanese (NYSE:CE) Stock Price

Celanese (NYSE:CE) had its price target cut by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $40.00 in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the basic materials company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 5.13% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on CE. Alembic Global Advisors upgraded shares of Celanese from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Celanese from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $66.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered Celanese from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Celanese from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Celanese from $75.00 to $59.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Celanese has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.89.

Celanese Trading Up 12.5 %

Shares of CE traded up $4.68 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $42.17. The stock had a trading volume of 3,065,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,493,369. Celanese has a 1 year low of $36.29 and a 1 year high of $169.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $57.38 and its 200 day moving average is $79.97. The firm has a market cap of $4.61 billion, a PE ratio of -3.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.08.

Celanese (NYSE:CE) last issued its earnings results 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 negative net margin of 14.81% and a positive return on equity of 12.86%. The firm had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.36 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Celanese will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Celanese

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in Celanese in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Celanese by 103.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. State of Wyoming lifted its stake in Celanese by 122.5% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. CKW Financial Group boosted its holdings in Celanese by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. CKW Financial Group now owns 535 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC increased its stake in Celanese by 739.1% in the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 537 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares during the last quarter. 98.87% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.