Chesapeake Energy (EXE) versus Its Peers Critical Contrast

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) is one of 286 public companies in the “Crude petroleum & natural gas” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Chesapeake Energy to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, risk, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Chesapeake Energy and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Chesapeake Energy	0	2	4	1	2.86
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	2168	11675	16246	632	2.50

Chesapeake Energy presently has a consensus target price of $102.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.58%. As a group, “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies have a potential upside of 18.02%. Given Chesapeake Energy’s peers higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Chesapeake Energy has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

97.9% of Chesapeake Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.3% of shares of all “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies are held by institutional investors. 58.0% of Chesapeake Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.9% of shares of all “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Chesapeake Energy and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Chesapeake Energy	6.07%	2.74%	2.08%
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	-2.94%	2.65%	6.55%

Volatility and Risk

Chesapeake Energy has a beta of 0.46, meaning that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chesapeake Energy’s peers have a beta of -13.46, meaning that their average stock price is 1,446% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Chesapeake Energy pays an annual dividend of $2.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Chesapeake Energy pays out 142.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Crude petroleum & natural gas” companies pay a dividend yield of 10.4% and pay out 115.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Chesapeake Energy lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Chesapeake Energy and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Chesapeake Energy	$8.72 billion	$2.42 billion	61.38
Chesapeake Energy Competitors	$10.80 billion	$1.07 billion	17.12

Chesapeake Energy’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Chesapeake Energy. Chesapeake Energy is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Chesapeake Energy beats its peers on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

Chesapeake Energy Company Profile

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.