Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $102.49 and last traded at $102.19, with a volume of 206249 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $100.01.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on EXE shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America started coverage on Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $114.00 price target for the company. Roth Capital raised Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.71.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Up 1.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.00 and a current ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market cap of $23.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.91 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $95.61.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.15. Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 2.74%. The business had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $708.98 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.09 EPS. Chesapeake Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 57.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Chesapeake Energy Corporation will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Chesapeake Energy

In related news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.58, for a total transaction of $4,343,978.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 5,201 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $517,915.58. This trade represents a 89.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 58.00% of the company’s stock.

About Chesapeake Energy

Expand Energy Corporation is an independent natural gas producer principally in the United States. Expand Energy Corporation, formerly known as Chesapeake Energy Corporation, is based in OKLAHOMA CITY.