CE vs. ECL, IFF, ALB, RPM, NEU, ASH, BCPC, FUL, KWR, and SXT
Should you be buying Celanese stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Celanese include Ecolab (ECL), International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Albemarle (ALB), RPM International (RPM), NewMarket (NEU), Ashland (ASH), Balchem (BCPC), H.B. Fuller (FUL), Quaker Chemical (KWR), and Sensient Technologies (SXT). These companies are all part of the "specialty chemicals" industry.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) and Celanese (NYSE:CE) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, risk, media sentiment, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and community ranking.
In the previous week, Celanese had 7 more articles in the media than Ecolab. MarketBeat recorded 16 mentions for Celanese and 9 mentions for Ecolab. Celanese's average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Ecolab's score of 0.72 indicating that Ecolab is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Celanese has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ecolab. Celanese is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ecolab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
74.9% of Ecolab shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.9% of Celanese shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Ecolab shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Celanese shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Ecolab received 58 more outperform votes than Celanese when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.75% of users gave Ecolab an outperform vote while only 63.73% of users gave Celanese an outperform vote.
Ecolab currently has a consensus price target of $239.56, indicating a potential upside of 3.17%. Celanese has a consensus price target of $156.78, indicating a potential upside of 3.12%. Given Celanese's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Ecolab is more favorable than Celanese.
Celanese has a net margin of 18.60% compared to Celanese's net margin of 10.01%. Celanese's return on equity of 20.56% beat Ecolab's return on equity.
Ecolab has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Celanese has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Ecolab pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Celanese pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Ecolab pays out 42.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Celanese pays out 15.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Ecolab has raised its dividend for 32 consecutive years and Celanese has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Celanese is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
Ecolab beats Celanese on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CE and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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