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Celanese (CE) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Celanese (CE - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $100.49, moving +0.27% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.3%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.5%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 2.95%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the chemical company had gained 4.74% over the past month. This has outpaced the Basic Materials sector's loss of 0.66% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.21% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from CE as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 24, 2019. On that day, CE is projected to report earnings of $2.44 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 23.23%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.74 billion, up 8.95% from the prior-year quarter.

CE's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $11.10 per share and revenue of $7.20 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +47.8% and +17.24%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for CE should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.51% higher. CE currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, CE is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.03. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 15.67.

Also, we should mention that CE has a PEG ratio of 0.9. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Chemical - Specialty industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.41 as of yesterday's close.

The Chemical - Specialty industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 175, putting it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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