Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) Research Coverage Started at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $127.00 price target on the stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on EXE. UBS Group raised shares of Chesapeake Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $94.00 to $123.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Stephens increased their price objective on Chesapeake Energy from $85.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on Chesapeake Energy from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Chesapeake Energy from $83.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on shares of Chesapeake Energy in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $114.00 price objective for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $113.63.

Chesapeake Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ EXE opened at $102.15 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.29. Chesapeake Energy has a one year low of $69.12 and a one year high of $105.00. The stock has a market cap of $23.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.06 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Chesapeake Energy (NASDAQ:EXE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $648.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $708.98 million. Chesapeake Energy had a return on equity of 2.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 57.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Chesapeake Energy will post 0.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chesapeake Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.575 per share. This represents a $2.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Chesapeake Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 141.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Chesapeake Energy

In other news, Director Catherine A. Kehr sold 43,623 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 5,201 shares in the company, valued at $517,915.58. This trade represents a 89.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 58.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.