Morningstar | No Changes to Our Outlook as Celanese Appoints New CEO; Shares Fairly Valued
On April 8, Celanese announced that CEO Mark Rohr will step down and assume the role of executive chairman of Celanese's board of directors, effective May 1. Lori Ryerkerk will become CEO and also serve as a member of the board of directors. Ryerkerk has held a variety of leadership roles throughout her 35-year career. Her most recent position before joining Celanese was executive vice president of global manufacturing at Royal Dutch Shell, where she led all chemical and refining operations globally. Before joining Shell in 2010, Ryerkerk also held multiple leadership roles at ExxonMobil for over two decades.Given Ryerkerk's wealth of relevant experience, we see no reason to change our Exemplary stewardship rating at this time. Celanese has traditionally exhibited disciplined capital allocation practices and has returned the majority of its free cash flow to shareholders. In recent years the company has focused on smaller, bolt-on acquisitions that bolster the product portfolio of its downstream business, while also focusing on enhancing its cost-advantaged acetic acid production. Under Ryerkerk's leadership, we expect these disciplined capital allocation practices to continue.
With our forecasts unchanged, we maintain our $102 per share fair value estimate and narrow moat rating. At current prices, we view Celanese as fairly valued, as the stock is trading closely in line with our fair value estimate.
Celanese is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a chemical and specialty materials company. The company is a producer of engineered polymers and a producer of acetyl products, which are intermediate chemicals. The company's segments are: Engineered Materials, which develops, produces and supplies a portfolio of specialty polymers for automotive and medical applications, as well as industrial products and consumer electronics; Acetate Tow, which is a producer and supplier of acetate tow and acetate flake, primarily used in filter products applications; and Acetyl Chain, which includes the chain of intermediate chemistry, emulsion polymers and ethylene vinyl acetate polymers businesses.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offer an extensive line of products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors.
Morningstar provides data on approximately 530,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 18 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. Morningstar also offers investment management services through its investment advisory subsidiaries and had approximately $185 billion in assets under advisement and management as of June 30, 2016.
We have operations in 27 countries.
Unfortunately, this report is not available for the investor type or country you selected.
Browse all ResearchPool reportsReport is subscription only.
Thank you, your report is ready.
Thank you, your report is ready.