Bank of America Initiates Coverage on Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE)

Bank of America began coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, StockNewsAPI reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $114.00 price target on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $90.00 to $97.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Roth Capital upgraded Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Stephens raised their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $84.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chesapeake Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $99.20.

Chesapeake Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ EXE opened at $84.72 on Monday. Chesapeake Energy has a 52-week low of $69.12 and a 52-week high of $93.58. The company has a market capitalization of $11.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.16.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 29th. The company reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.02 by ($0.01). Chesapeake Energy had a net margin of 8.68% and a return on equity of 4.00%. The company had revenue of $378.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $556.35 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Chesapeake Energy will post 1.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a $0.575 dividend. This represents a $2.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.70%.

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.