BofA cuts Chemours, Celanese Corp, and Dow as valuations reflect ‘elusive’ recovery

BofA downgraded shares of U.S. chemicals stocks Chemours Co (NYSE:), Celanese Corp. (NYSE:), and Dow Inc (NYSE:) in a note to clients Thursday.

Analysts downgraded CC to Neutral from Buy, cutting the price target to $37 from $41. CE was also cut to Neutral from Buy, with the price target lowered to $116 from $123, while DOW was lowered to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $55, down from $64 per share.

“Whether explicitly guided or not, U.S. commodity chemical companies have very back-half weighted earnings expectations for 2023,” stated the analysts. “Considering much of these businesses are tied to North American and European construction, this weighting runs counter to normal seasonality. In fact, across the associated coverage universe, the sell-side consensus has a 10% build, on average, in 2H EBITDA over 1H.”

“As we assess new estimates and valuations, upside appears compressed in a few stocks. This is leading us to downgrade DOW to Underperform from Neutral and CE and CC to Neutral from Buy,” they added.

The analysts stated that they acknowledge that the rating decisions are late in the cycle but see valuations as “continuing to reflect a recovery that has been elusive.”