Celanese (CE) stock took a massive beating yesterday after analysts hit the technology and specialty materials company with price target cuts. While the company recently beat EPS estimates and matched revenue predictions, it warned of $100 million in headwinds expected in Q1 2025. This comes from demand and pricing challenges, seasonal weakness, a planned outage, and a delayed dividend from its acetate joint venture.
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This news didn’t sit well with analysts and many cut their price targets for CE stock following its earnings report. For example, Robert W. Baird analyst Ghansham Panjabi dropped the stock from $110 to $67 while Mizuho Securities’ John Roberts reduced his price target from $86 to $73.
BMO Capital analyst John McNulty, who holds a 3.5-star rating on TipRanks, warned of “steadily increasing the risks” for equity investors holding CE stock. He also said shareholders should expect a “muted” upside in the coming years. McNulty maintained an Underperform rating for the stock while lowering his price target from $73 to $46.
How This Affects CE Stock
Investors aren’t pleased with Celanese’s outlook or the various price target cuts for the shares. This had CE stock down a whopping 21.46% when markets closed yesterday. That’s also caused a 20.66% drop year-to-date and extends a 62.93% decrease over the last 52 weeks. Yesterday’s movement also came with heavy trading as 13.11 million shares changed hands compared to a three-month daily average of 2.19 million units.
Is CE Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Celanese is Hold based on three Buy, nine Hold, and two Sell ratings over the last three months. With that comes an average price target of $72, a high of $88, and a low of $46. This represents a potential 31.12% upside for CE stock.
