Celanese (NYSE:CE) Announces Earnings Results

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

Celanese Trading Down 26.3 %

Shares of NYSE:CE opened at $91.00 on Wednesday. Celanese has a 1 year low of $90.51 and a 1 year high of $172.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $128.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.94 billion, a PE ratio of 5.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.31.

Celanese Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 30th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. Celanese’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Scott A. Richardson sold 4,675 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.51, for a total transaction of $605,459.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 69,754 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,033,840.54. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on CE. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Celanese from $140.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Celanese from $193.00 to $184.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Celanese from $137.00 to $128.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Celanese from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $165.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler cut Celanese from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $180.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $138.53.

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.