Forensic Analysis · General / Diversified · as of Jun 27, 2026
Celanese Corp (CE)
A forensic read on Celanese Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.1
Altman Z-score
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
-25.3%
ROE
$5.4B
Market cap
0.24%
Dividend yield
Celanese Corp earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its Altman Z-score is 2.1, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
-3%Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -3% and slipping from 6% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+0.1%/yrShare-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +0% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.1%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks are about offsetting stock comp, not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
$2.7BGoodwill impairments.Took $2.7B of goodwill writedowns across 2 year(s) (FY2024 ($1.5B), FY2025 ($1.1B)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them — worth weighing on capital-allocation skill.
-96%Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~96% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies — weigh the cut when judging reliability.
Key fundamentals
Net Margin-12.2%
Debt / Equity3.11x
Free Cash Flow$803.0M
Latest Revenue$9.54B
Return on Equity-28.8%
Revenue Growth YoY-7.1%
Go deeper — free with an account
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. An account adds the full interactive deep-dive on Celanese Corp:
🔒The written investment read — what the numbers mean, in plain English
🔒Ask anything about CE's filings — AI Q&A across the 10-K, 10-Qs & 8-Ks
🔒Interactive valuation — reverse-DCF sliders, Monte Carlo & scenario stress
🔒Calibrated 12-month price forecast, with the math shown