Goldman Sachs Upgrades Celanese To Buy (CE)

Goldman Sachs is upgrading shares of Celanese Corp. CE to Buy from Neutral, with a $62 price target on shares. In a note to investors, Goldman writes, "We upgrade Celanese (CE) to Buy (previously Neutral) ahead of its May 10 investor day and following recent meetings with management, very strong 1Q11 results and forward outlook, and recent stock weakness. We now expect 2011/12/13 EPS of $4.56/$5.31/$6.17 (vs. prior $4.04/$4.79/$5.50). Our SOTP based, 12-month $62 price target implies 32% upside from current levels, which we view as an attractive entry point. CE trades at only 8.8X our 2012 EPS estimate and we believe that CE warrants a higher multiple considering the evolution of its earnings mix shift to higher margin specialty chemicals and less from more commodity-like end markets." Shares of CE are up 38 cents in pre-market trading to $47.50, a gain of 0.8%.