UPDATE: Citi Upgrades Celanese; Raises PT

According to a research report published this morning, Citi has upgraded Celanese

from Neutral to Buy, and raised PT from $51 to $56. In the report, Citi said, "We are upgrading CE to Buy as we think: 1) The weakness in the acetyls chain is now reflected in the stock price and CE recently idled its “high cost” Singapore plant to send a strong signal to the market; 2) The new CEO, Mr. Mark Rohr, who was a successful CEO of Albemarle, is likely to make changes after having to lower long-term 2013 EPS guidance on his first earnings conference call. Mr. Rohr has a successful track record of delivering earnings growth; and 3) The shares, having underperformed the S&P Chemicals by ~ 600 bps YTD, trades at only 9x forward EPS and could easily move to the mid- $50 range as visibility on new ethanol projects improves and the company begins to return more cash to shareholders (as seen by the recent 25% quarterly dividend hike)." Celanese closed yesterday at $48.40.