Celanese We Upgrade to Overweight Based on Valuation

Research evidence excerpt

Celanese We Upgrade to Overweight Based on Valuation

J P M O R G A N North America Equity Research

12 May 2026

Celanese ▲Overweight

Previous: Neutral

We Upgrade to Overweight Based on Valuation CE, CE US

Price (11 May 26):$57.17

Price Target (Dec-26):$68.00

We rate Celanese Overweight for year-ahead performance. Celanese’s share price Chemicals: Specialty, Commodity,

has moved lower (14%) from almost $69 last week versus the market, which is 2% Agricultural, and Paper & Packaging

higher. There was some disappointment with expected growth in Celanese’s free Jeffrey J. Zekauskas AC

cash flow generation, in addition to lower tensions around the conflict in Iran. We (1-212) 622-6644

value Celanese on a sum-of-the-parts basis, and our price target is $68. We expect jeffrey.zekauskas@jpmorgan.com

Celanese to throw off 11%-13% of its share price in free cash flow in 2026-2027. Lydia Huang

The shares currently trade at ~7.5x EBITDA estimates for 2026-2027 and would (1-212) 622-0086

trade at 8.0x EBITDA estimates with a 9%-11% free cash flow yield at our price lydia.huang@jpmorgan.com

target. Celanese increased its free cash flow expectations from a range of $650m Silke Kueck

to $750m for 2026 to $700m to $800m. We think this recent downward movement (1-212) 622-6503

silke.x.kueck@jpmorgan.com

in price represents a decent entry point into the shares. We note that Celanese’s

Katie Zhang

financial leverage is likely to be around 4.5x at the end of 2026.

(1-212) 622-3262

• Our 2026 EPS estimate for Celanese is $6.35 versus $3.98 in 2025 because katie.zhang@jpmchase.comJ.P. Morgan Securities LLC

of higher expectations for Celanese’s Acetyl Chain segment, not because

of changes in our estimates for Engineered Materials. We expect shortage

conditions in the acetyl chain to persist.