Brokerages Set Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) Price Target at $111.71

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $111.71.

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Chesapeake Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Chesapeake Energy from $102.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $83.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $110.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th.

Chesapeake Energy Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of EXE opened at $94.87 on Friday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $93.05. Chesapeake Energy has a 1-year low of $69.12 and a 1-year high of $101.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.56 and a beta of 0.52.

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

Chesapeake Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.575 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.42%. Chesapeake Energy’s payout ratio is 141.98%.

Insider Activity at Chesapeake Energy

In other Chesapeake Energy news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 5,201 shares in the company, valued at $517,915.58. This represents a 89.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 58.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.